Figueres and Girona

Today we had our final BCA-organized excursion to the two towns of Figueres and Girona. These are both northwest of Barcelona, sort of in the Costa Brava region but not actually along the coast.

In Figueres the main attraction was the Salvador Dali Museum and Theater. I had been here once before when I came to Spain with my high school Spanish class, and the museum was just as impressive the second time around. He is one of the most famous surrealist artists, and this museum is one that he designed himself from the ground up. There are all sorts of works, from paintings to sculptures to jewlery that were all designed and created by Dali. Many of his works are kindof off-the-wall and crazy. The main idea behind surrealism itself is to take two ordinary (and seemingly unconnected) objects and fuse them together to create a third "reality." This is shown in all of his art, but most prominently in works that, when looked at from two different angles, appear to be two completely differnet objects. One example is his famous painting of a nude woman standing in front of a window--but if you look at it with blurred eyes (or take a picture of it) it becomes the face of Abraham Lincoln. Very fascinating.

After seeing the museum we took the bus to Girona, where we saw the cathedral (yes, another cathedral) and then had time to wander around the town over lunch time. It seemed like a nice quaint town, but we ended up spending most of the time hiding from the rain inside a cafe.

Mom and Dad and Leah, this will definitely be a place (particularly Figueres) that we should try to visit when you are here.

Thats all for now. Happy Halloween everyone!