Dali Country

Dali Country

by friend Jackie Halliday

At Figueres, waiting for the bus to go to Cadaques, (we tried all sorts of ways to pronounce this name before we left and now know it is Caddakez) we met a lovely French woman, Anny Calames, who helped us find the way to our hotel when we arrived at 9.30pm in the dark.

We need not have feared that it would too cold this far north as there is a heat wave at the moment. The temperatures have been in the late 20s early 30s. We have swum every day, sometimes in the sea, sometimes in the pool, sometimes both!

Cadaques is beautiful and if you are looking for a place to drop out, this is it! Our hotel is on a small bay around the coast, about 500 mtrs from the town, which means we can look back at the town. The sun rises over the hill behind us and bathes the town in, first, orange and then a golden glow, before revealing the intense white of Mediterranean villages. Over the single lane road is a small beach where we swim. The water is so clear you can see the bottom even when you are out quite deep. There is a small red boat anchored off shore in a line of moorings that we swim out to. The Med is quite salty which makes it very buoyant so you can just float around and the best thing is, the tide doesn't go out!

We've had breakfast every morning in the town and watched Anny as she walks the length of the  beach in the water. She is staying in the Hostal Christina nearby. She stunned us by telling us she is 73! She lives in Paris and this is her first holiday for 3 years as she has been ill with breast cancer. She tells us the best restaurants, which has the yummiest patisseries and where the best coffee is. In her youth she spent a year in Australia. She is very well read and is, in her words, a "cinephile". She told me that the Mediterranean scenes of Angel at my Table were filmed here in Cadaques! But she said you wouldn't recognise it as it had been edited so much. I'll have to have another look! She knew Jane Campion as a director and has also seen The Piano, and read Katherine Mansfield!!

Yesterday we trekked over the hill to Casa Dali at Port Lligat. It was only 20 mins away but was extremely hot. Each visit is timed. They let in 8 people every 10 mins. If you miss your scheduled time then that's it! It was an amazing house made of a number of fishermen's cottages joined together. He lived there with his wife, Gala, for most of his life. All the original furnishings are still there which made it quite poignant. The swimming pool in the garden was a bit of a take off of the Arabic pools in the Alcazar and Generalife gardens - a long lap pool with water spouts all the way down.

Today is the Dali Teatro-Museo in Figueres which turned out to be absolutely  amazing. If you're ever in this area I would highly recommend it. It's in the old local theatre  that was burned down during the civil war and has kept its theatre configuration with the audience central space and stage containing sculptures, paintings and installations, ensuring it continues a theatrical experience.  When Dali first mooted the idea of a museum of his work in Figueres they offered him a room in the town's art gallery. This was not to his liking. As the Theatre was in ruins he offered to rebuild it in return for it being a museum to his life's work. He was closely involved with its setting up and the installations that are in every nook and cranny. It is full of surprises. The thought provoking works are a combination of classical, old masters and modern ideas with a vaguely (or subtly) mocking air. Quirky, yet serious, is probably a good description. Dali also juxtaposes contrasting ideas or objects, for instance the figures decorating the building outside are in a classical style but have baguettes atop them.  The plaza surrounding the building is just as amazing with incredible sculptures making all sorts of statements. You are never bored waiting in the queue. Even the Dali shop counter  has Alice in Wonderland shoes as feet!

The visitor needs to look up, down and round about to discover all the secrets. The  most impressive is on the stage and is a huge nude painting of Gala from the back but the further away you get you notice that it is pixellated and forms a portrait of Lincon. Gala's hair forms his left eye!

Unfortunately I haven't been able to include any images of Dali's works for copyright reasons.

On leaving the museum to catch the train back to Barcelona I made the first navigational mistake and returned to the train station that we had disembarked at from Valencia. However, unbeknownst to me, there is another station called Figueres Vilafant 4kms on the other side of town which has the fast TGVs from Paris coming through. This was where we were meant to be. So the slow, local train to Barcelona took nearly 3 hours instead of under 2! Not much of a mistake really but annoying just the same.

Back in Barcelona I received a text from a cousin to say that my favourite uncle, aged 93 had just died. I heard he was not well when we left and was hoping to get back in time to see him again. We used to spend all our holidays on the farm when we were children. HIs sister aged 94, nearly 95, is still alive. I think she will make 100. So that cast a sad spell over the day. As it was my birthday I had to cheer up a bit, so we went to Sinatra's  for dinner  and had cocktails with delicious, elegant, tapas.

Tomorrow we fly out, back to reality. We have thoroughly enjoyed our time in Spain and would highly recommend it. The weather has been superb with blue skies, 2 or 3 cloudy days, no rain, and some wind in the south. The temperatures have been in the late 20s, early 30s. We have walked in new cities, old cites, at all hours of the day and night and have felt perfectly safe wherever we went.  Would we change anything? Only two things, an individual tour with an audioguide of the Alhambra, to give us more time for reflection; and make the effort to visit Toledo and Segovia from Madrid. (We got a bit too comfortable!)

The art we have seen has been incredible and reinforces how important public art, sculptures and stunning architecture in a city are. People travel the world to see these. Back in NZ our art interest continues as we visit the newly opened Auckland Art Gallery to see both the building and the Robertson collection, on loan but to be permanent in the future,  and are very impressed. It is world class. The flower chandelier is stunning! I even took our 6 and 8 year old grandsons to see it and they were suitably impressed.

I hope you have enjoyed reading about our travels in Spain. Feel free to email me jackie@hallidays.co.nz if you have any comments or questions.

Kind regards, Jackie