We headed north from Barcelona up towards the very northeastern corner of Spain, almost to the French border. The tollway was fast, but expensive - set us back about 10 euros to drive a couple hours north. We hit Figueres and turned east towards Cadaqués. Soon we were twisting and turning on hillside roads in the fog, and finally descended on the little seaside village made famous by Salvador Dalí. He lived the later part of his life over the hill in Port Lligat, and apparently spent many family holidays in Cadaqués.

This was our only planned stop along the Costa Brava, and it started off in the gloom. It was a dreary day on the coast. But the town was charming enough, and we wandered up and down the narrow streets for a while after checking in to our hotel. We wound up at a nice little cafe on the beach and relaxed, wrote postcards, and spilled wine. Later that evening we tried out one of the restaurants a couple blocks up from the water, and enjoyed a very tasty dinner of grilled fish and squid. Mmm... We turned in early since we had a 10:10 a.m. reservation to tour Salvador Dalí's house in Port Lligat, and we weren't sure how long it would take to walk over there. We'd have to set the alarm for this one!

And up early we were - believe it or not we almost caught the sunrise. I wanted to get down to the waterfront for the early morning light, and it was quite nice. This morning was clear and bright, and the beauty of Cadaqués appeared in front of my camera lens. We snapped a few photos and stopped in for some fresh pastries at a small bakery / wine store we had taken note of last night. (Actually, we had stopped in at this place after dinner and picked up a couple liters of cheap sangria - they had big wooden barrels tapped for self service, and a stack of plastic cartons sitting nearby!) Then we strolled over the hill to Port Lligat - the site of Dalí's house, which was built up into its present estate over much of his adult life. It turned out to be a short 20-minute walk and we were allowed to join an earlier tour.

Port Lligat was a beautiful setting, comprised of just a couple of buildings surrounding a tranquil bay, with jagged rock formations offshore serving as a breakwater from the increasingly rough waters of the open sea. The house itself was a very cozy whitewashed structure that was the result of a slow accumulation of several fishermen's houses lining a small hillside. The rustic wooden doors were awash with color - apparently Dalí asked the local fisherman to clean their paintbrushes on his doors while they painted their fishing boats. And the house itself was outfitted with several bizarre white statues, the most recognizable of these probably being the large eggs that sat atop a couple of the corners of the house, and two large and rather abstract faces further up the hill (which were more visible as you descended upon the house from behind via the footpath from Cadaqués). All of the rooms had magnificent views of the water.

The backyard had a very inviting feel, with more bright whitewashed stone, and a crazy phallous-shaped swimming pool surrounded by pop culture art icons (including a whole Michelin man!). I guess this was the scene of some pretty crazy parties, and I could just picture it. The plastic sofa shaped like big red lips at one edge of the pool was hilarious, and it all felt pretty wacky and, well, I guess a bit surreal. There wasn't much time to hang out though, since the next tour was coming through. The whole scene was pretty tightly controlled, given the small hallways through which visitors must walk through the house. It was all very pleasant, and we felt energized as we walked back up over the hill to Cadaqués. I wish we had a bit more time to spend here, but we had one more must-see stop in this part of the country before heading down towards Valencia...

We left Cadaqués behind in the early afternoon, after checking out of our hotel, grabbing some snacks from the market, and picking up the laundry we had dropped off at the lavanderia the previous afternoon, and headed back towards Figueres. This time the sky was bright and sunny, and the winding roads had a whole different characteristic. The views were spectacular, and we stopped at a couple of lookout points that afforded good vistas back down over the town that we had just come from. It was a short drive back to Figueres, and we quickly found our next destination: the Dalí Theatre-Museum. It did not disappoint. It was funky - some very fine art, and lots of bizarro stuff at every turn. Stereoscopic paintings with mirrors, holograms, dual images, "hidden" images, sculptures, big red lips for a sofa, an old cadillac with plants growing inside it, etc. Plus some amazing exhibits by other artists. Definitely "surreal"!