So back in February (yes, February!) Sarah, Linda and I went to Girona. Every Catalonian I’ve ever met insists that the city is one of the prettiest in Catalunya. It’s not very big, but there’s plenty to see!

We arrived late Friday night, so we just had time for dinner, and we just happened to stumble upon a Bruce Springsteen themed restaurant called The River. Everything on the menu was named after a Bruce Springsteen song. The food was delicious and we became regulars for the weekend (the cute Spanish American waiter was just a bonus, I promise!)

The next morning we were off to Figueres, where Dalí was born, to see his theater-turned-museum and his jewelry museum. The Theater-Museum has a lot of Dalí’s famous works and sketches. Even when she doesn’t appear in his paintings, Dalí dedicated them to his wife and muse, Gala. He wrote dedications to her in different languages on the bottoms of his canvases. Dalí himself is buried in a crypt in the basement of the museum.

Although Dalí didn’t make the pieces himself, he designed the jewelry in the Jewelry Museum. Each piece was extraordinary and some were designed to move, like the beating heart piece.

(Don’t the petal tips look like hands?)

First thing upon getting back to Girona? Eating at an Irish pub, naturally! Done with that, we went to the old Call, or Jewish Quarter, that used to be one of the most prosperous in Spain before the Inquisition. The buildings here still have the niches where mezuzahs used to be. The Jewish Museum has tapestries, artifacts, and grave stones that were salvaged from the Inquisition.

We ended our last day in Girona with the Museum of Film and a last trip to The River, where our waiter miraculously got us seats although the place was packed with football fans.

Next morning, we took the bus from Figueres to Cadaqués, the beachfront town where Dalí built his home. The house is in Port Lligat, and to go inside, you need reservations in advance. When Dalí first bought it, the house was more of a shack. He expanded it into a house full of natural light, though he also had workrooms with no windows. It’s filled with gifts he received from his patrons (sometimes very odd things, like a stuffed bear), and there are a few of his signature lip-shaped couches as well. 

Cadaqués is very pretty, blue and white, almost like those stereotypical photos of Greece, so that for a while you think you’re not in Spain anymore. Indeed, the French border with Spain is just a short distance away from here! We had a yummy lunch by the water and walked along the coast, taking windswept pictures of each other.