10/22/10 Figueres & Girona

It was a struggle to wake up early, but I made to the University by 9 am to catch the bus for our field trip.  Our first stop was Figueres, which is north of Barcelona.  This is where the Salvador Dali Museum is.  He was born here and spent the last years of his life designing a museum here.  The bus ride to Figueres was pretty low key, lots of people were tired from going out the night before.  When we got to the Musuem, the first things you see on the outside of this building are tons of loaves of bread and on top of the building are giant eggs.  These random sculptures on the outside of the building don’t even begin to capture the strange yet creative aspects of Dali’s work.  The our group was split into two sections for a tour.  Our tour guide was fantastic and pointed out many of the complex figures worked into some of Dali’s artwork.  The most fascinating painting for me was one of a women looking off a balcony.  The painting was created using a pixel effect and one of the small pixels that made up the painting was a portrait of Abraham Lincoln.  The tour guide then told us to stretch the corners of our eyes and look at the painting again.  The whole painting of woman looking off the balcony turned into a giant portrait of Lincoln.  It was amazing.  Looking at the painting with the naked eye, you could not see Lincoln, but squinting or through a camera lens, the entire painting appeared to be a portrait of Lincoln.  This demonstrated the complexity and ingenuity of Dali’s work.  The rest of the artwork came in all shapes in forms, displaying Dali’s talents as a surrealist.

Outside of the Dali Museum

Lincoln Painting

May West

Tapestry of Dali's Melting Clocks Painting

            From Figueres we got on the bus to go to Girona, a pretty big town near the French border.  We didn’t have anything scheduled in Girona, except to each lunch.  We all ate lunch on the bus, because we couldn’t wait to get there to eat.  When we got to Girona, we basically just walked around.  Evan, who goes to Tufts and wants to become a professional cyclist, ran into a professional cyclist while we were there.  Apparently, a lot of professional cyclists live and train in Girona, one famous name who lives here is Lance Armstrong.  Anyways, Evan started talking to this cyclist, who is actually Canadian, and he recommended that we check out the wall that goes around the city.  We spent a good portion of time walking along this wall, which had great views of the city.  After a relaxing afternoon in Girona, we got back on the bus and headed back to Barcelona.

Part of the Wall

River Through Girona (note bridge)

Mary, Diana, Anushe and I

Bridge from other picture.  Designed by Eifle (the Eifle of the Eifle Tower)

            Pepita had prepared a tortilla de patatas for me, which I ate when I got home.  She was at swim lessons with her grandkids.  I went out after dinner to meet up with Emily, Sofia (who showed us around Rome), and Sofia’s friends her were also visiting from Rome.  We met at La Sagrada Familia and took them to the Palace at Montjuic.  We were hoping to show them the Fountain show, but it had stopped for the rest of the season.  It was still a pretty view at night.  From there, we went to Las Ramblas and they got some sangria and tapas.  I went home from there and Emily took them to their hostel.