Barcelona Side Trip (whoops I forgot to post this!)

Today, James and I took a full day side trip from Barcelona to see Girona and Figueres. It was difficult for us to decide which side trip we wanted to do and how to go about it. We originally wanted to go to Figueres and Cadeques but Cadeques is highly congested with tourists in the summer. Ultimately we decide on an organized tour due to the ease of not having to figure it out for ourselves and not having to worry about trains and bus times and transfers.

So this morning we got up early, 6:30! We haven't been up this early since the day we left for our trip! We took the metro to the tourist office and hopped on the bus. The bus drove one hour to Girona. This is an old Romanesque town. It actually has an entire new area but we didn't go there. The old town has cobblestone streets, old vines and large castle like walls. With our group we had a local tour guide walk us around the city for an hour and a half showing us the main sites and quant little streets. Something interesting we learned was how close the Catalan and Basque people are to a revolt against Spain. The guide wouldn't "go into it" much because it is so political but basically the Basque and Cataluna regions want to be independent states/countries. After she showed us around we had an hour to get lunch and walk around on our own. This is the first time I don't want to talk about the food; we could have made it far better and paid too much! Eww! We walked around a bit and hopped back on the bus.

Here is a little video of our tour guide explaining her favorite and one of the many legends of Girona.

The bus drove on another 30 minutes to Figueres. This is the home town of Salvador Dali; James' favorite artist. During a civil war a theater in this town burned down, Dali made a deal with the Mayor that if he rebuilt it and designed it the Mayor would have to use it as a Dali Museum. Obviously any Mayor would be fine with this so Dali turned it into this...

This is the least dramatic side. Around the rest of the building there are fake loaves of bread ALL over and the roof has very large fake eggs! It is bizzare! 

Salvador Dali was in my opinion quite a bit coo coo but somewhat ingenious! Not all of his works are here, supposedly the best Dali museum is in Florida, figures! Here are a few pictures of the art in this museum...

It's hard to see through the camera, but with the naked eye here all you see is a pixlated naked woman. Then when you take a picture it looks like Abraham Lincoln! Incredible mind trick right?

Do you see the man's face and tie?

For this picture you had to walk up the stairs right to the center to see that the lips couch, nose fireplace, eye photos and archway of hair made one large face!

On the celing!

My personal favorite from the Dali jewel collection! An eyeball brioche with a blue clock, diamond outside and red ruby teardrop! Christmas is coming people.... Hahaha (reminder- I need to reread my previous post The Necessity of Things)!

Only two full days left and I can't believe our trip is coming to an end! Tomorrow we plan to revisit (with tickets) the Park Guell and then spend the next day and a half at the gorgeous beach! So likely, this is it until I have time to write my tips and reviews when we get back!

See you soon America!

Love,

Robin {& James}