Friday, June 21, 2013

The Dalí Museum in Figueres and a GREAT Night in Barcelona!


Thursday morning, it was time to leave Cadaqués and work our way back to Barcelona by way of Figueres for one last day in Spain.

But first, at breakfast at our favorite little café/boulangerie in sleepy Cadaqués . . .

 We discovered the baker's
CATALUNYAN PRIDE

 The Dalí Museum in Figueres

This should be a ton of wacky fun!

True to Salvador's Free Spirit

What are these things?

Museum Entrance

Disturbing

The Mullet on the man sitting, not the Dalí statue behind him.

 Two Hot Mamas and a Cadillac

 OOH LA LA!!!

Dalí and his ants

 Not so Surreal Dalí

Boat Out of Water

 Recycling Tires

 Battle Scene

Two Dream Girls

WWII Concentration Camp

Nazi Legacy

Face and Doorway

Powerful Ceiling

Two of Laurie's Favorites
Cherries and Alpargatas

 Melting Clocks

So a Rhinoceros and an Octopus
go into a bar . . .

 Nice Floor

Death
Time simply ran out

 Juggling Fiends

The Dalí Museum is really two museums in one location requiring two separate admissions.

Having conquered the art portion, it was now time for Laurie's attack on the Dalí Jewelry Museum.

I would act as support in this hopeless mission. I must say that Dalí's vision in jewelry was quite amazing to my untrained eye.

 A Cross

 Are you looking at me?

 Laurie REALLY wanted this one

Dalí's face in a necklace

Hands Team!!!

Butterfly Globe

Probably Dalí's most famous
piece of jewelry

 Birthday present for Koreen?

This is no time to be a cheapskate Brian FitzGerald.

 Ian Murphy would like this

After two hours of viewing this amazing Dalí collection, it was time for a little repast of some sort.

This place will do

INDEED!!!!!!!!

After lunch we headed about 90 minutes South to Spain's best city, Barcelona.

We were scheduled to meet for drinks at 9:00 p.m. with Stephane Morin, a DB for the Spanish powerhouse Pioners L'Hospitalet that won this season's Spanish Division I Championship.

We arrived in Barcelona at the Sagrada Familia Cathedral, near our meeting spot, at about 4:30 p.m. so we decided, after parking our car, to head down to the Ramblas via the Metro to view that great European pedestrian highway for perhaps our last time ever.  

Ladies . . . . . . . . Gentlemen
Young Lovers

Calle Arco del Teatro
"more of a scar than a street"

I am really hooked on Barcelona bred writer Carlos Ruiz Zafón's trilogy of books about the magical Cemetery of Lost Books.

This mythical and mysterious Cemetery is located here in Zafón's tomes.

The Cemetery is mythical, right?

 A hot day on Las Ramblas

Can life get any better?

Of course it can with TAPAS!!!

 On Plaça Real

Courtship on Plaça Real

Time for a little flirting of my own
on Plaça Real

It was time to head back to the Sagrada Familia Cathedral for our meeting as we bade adios to heaven on earth.

Still Working on the Cathedral

Artistic Perspective

Note the size of the worker in the yellow hard hat. I know that Spaniards tend to be slight in stature but still!

 Two of Gaudi's Many Towers

 LIZARD!!!

Fruits

Our Grandson Jacob is now
an Apostle???

How did that ever happen so quickly?

 Forgive Me

 "CRUCIFY HIM!!!"

 Shrouded Towers

The Cerveceria Inter-Tapa

The outdoor tables across from this walkway was our meeting spot with Stephane Morin. We were also hoping to meet with his team's highly successful Head Coach, Teo Polanco, but unfortunately work commitments would not allow him to join us.

Stephane is 35 years old, hales from France's Brittany region and only started playing American football three years ago after moving to Barcelona for work related reasons.

Apparently one of his new Spanish buddies talked him into going out for the Pioners instead of trying to continue his budding soccer career.

After one practice with the Pioners, where his lack of size and knowledge of this strange new sport led to a physical beating by Stephane's own account, there was only one thing to do . . .

Sign up as a full-time player for Spain's top club, the Pioners!

Never underestimate a Catlunyan's power of persuasion over an athlete from Brittany.

Stephane's passion for American football just oozed out of every pore in his body as he related the joy that it is to play for the Pioners through both his stories and body language.

Laurie and I sat at the sidewalk table on a perfect, warm Barcelona night trading American football stories with Stephane for about an hour when  suddenly a familiar looking man approached our table and introduced himself as none other than Ventura County baseball and football coaching legend Gil Mendoza who also lives in Camarillo!

With Gil and Karen Mendoza

The Mendozas are vacationing in Barcelona for a few days, after which they will travel to other parts of Spain and then on to Paris for a visit there. It turns out that their flat is about a block from the Cerveceria Inter-Tapas.

It is truly a small world.

We all hung out for about another hour swapping even more American football stories . . . IT WAS AWESOME!!!

Stephane, Gil and "Pizza George" as
Stephane calls me because of the blog

Laurie and I will remember this fun night for a long time. By the time we got back to our airport friendly hotel it was well after midnight and we still had an early Friday morning flight to catch back to Lyon.

The lack of sleep was worth it on this warm Barcelona night.

Farewell to Barcelona's Moon

We love this town.

1 comment:

Unknown said...

Thanks a lot to you four! This was really a special night full of surprises and amazing stories! Hope your flight home went well and that soon you will want to come back! Two hours were far too little to hear all the amazing stories you still have to tell! Kisses to Laurie and you and see you "soon"!!!