A day of 5 events - November 15th

November 15th a Day of 5 Events
Event #1 - Port Lligat – Dali’s House
From Barbara:
This morning we headed out for our final Dali experience – his house in Port Lligat (a village just north of Cadaquez). The pictures of his house really tell the story. He lived in Port Lligat most of his life (even before he had the house). The house was created out of several fisherman’s shacks. Dali designed the place and everything in it reflects him and Gala. Dali didn’t marry prior to Gala and he wasn’t young when he did. She was about 10 years older than he. She was married to someone else and had some children. She and her husband visited Dali together (don’t know what the nature of their previous relationship was) but she ended up staying with Dali. They obviously were very much in love for the entire time they were together. He credits her with much of his success and says she was his inspiration for his finest work. Visiting their home is very personal and you get a real feeling for their joy and their quirkiness. When Gala died Dali left the house and never returned so the house is very much just the way it was when they were last there together. One of the best things was viewing a pieced together film of their “home movies”. Dali performs throughout and he is really fun.
From Tom: The house and the art and the décor and Gala and Dali are one. It seemed we were there for 10 minutes, but it was over 1 hour. I would go back in a heartbeat. Dali said: “to be a great artist requires just one thing – to be married to my wife”. That just about sums it up.
Event #2 Cap D’ Crues
From Barbara:
After the visit to Dali’s house we drove to the end of Cap D’ Crues – a rocky point which is the eastern most place in Spain – of course “Cataluyna is no Espana” but at least it is the eastern most part of the Iberian Peninsula.
From Tom:
The Cap is almost an island, connected to the main by a high, narrow causeway. It appears 90% rock, 10% scrubby bushes with one small tree. Beautiful blue-green water with a small island off-shore. Quite unique!
Event #3 – The Ruins
From Barbara:
We had no other plans for the day – and it was too soon to just go back to Cadaques so we drove south to a little town on the map – on the water – Escala. We didn’t know anything about it – it just looked well located. As we pulled into the town we saw a sign for “ruins” so we followed the signs. Amazing…..
The ruins were those of not one, but two, ancient cities. The once closest to the water is Greek and the second one is Roman. They are both HUGE and are not even 50% excavated. I have been to quite a few ruins before but the only one that is larger than this is Ephesis. The excavation at this site began in 1908 and it is not expected to be finished for at least 100 years. We were fascinated and impressed. I can’t believe we’ve never even heard of this place.
From Tom: The Greek ruins date from the 3rd century BC. There is a very large town square/market that was the trading center. Each market house (9 on one side) contained a large cistern, some over 20 feet deep. They contained olive oil and preserved fish – and God knows what else – for trade.
Of extreme interest, in the museum, was a 2 inch diameter lead pipe with a valve in it. Indoor plumbing in 300 BC!
One small portion of the Roman ruin had been completely excavated and rebuilt to it’s prime form. It was incredible!
Event #4 Escala – The Town
From Barbara:
Afterwards we drove into the town proper. It is delightful with wonderful beaches – many with sand. This is place to travel to that appears somewhat undiscovered – at least to us Americans. We had a light lunch overlooking a small beach. Lunch was mostly anchovies – salad with anchovies, bread with anchovies. Very nice. We have become very fond of these tiny fishes.
I hope to take some Cadaques pictures in the morning before we head back to France. This leg of the trip is nearly over. Can’t believe it has gone so fast.
Event #5 - Dinner
From: Barbara
From Tom:

http://www.elbarroco.net
From Toni: Dinner was quite an experience. I have a friend from Catalunyae who lives in San Francisco and I had e-mailed her asking where she had been born. I mentioned that we were in Cataque and she said that her husband had proposed to her in a restaurant called el Barraco in the village of Cataques.
From Tom: When Toni told us this I went to the hotel desk and told the woman there a somewhat embellished story about Natasha. I asked her to call the restaurant. She did – they were closed. I whined a little and she called the restaurant again. She obviously knew the owner and they spoke in Catalunyese. I had no clue. She then told me that the owner would open the restaurant for us and prepare dinner. We arrived at the restaurant to see an empty dining room and were warmly welcomed by a very interesting looking man who was obviously the owner. We went into a second dining room to a table prepared for three. The owner engaged us in a conversation that led us to guess his country of origin. The key word was “cedar” which eventually lead me to guess that he was from Lebanon-bingo! The meal was wonderful. Because we were the only people there it was smoke free (they still smoke in restaurants in Spain – UG!)
From: Barbara
The restaurant, the owner and his family, were delightful. The restaurant was designed by Dali (we didn’t know this until today when we checked out the website.
You can check it out too. http://www.elbarroco.net
Instead of talking about this history of the restaurant etc. the owner talked with us about his love of classical music and good food. The background music was classical. In fact this added to the ambience and it was truly a classy place. We met his wife and two daughters. The food was also wonderful – hummous, baba ganoush, a fish infused dip, a beautiful fish in delicious sauce, and stuffed squid. The décor was very beautiful but not pretentious at all. After dinner, the owner took us into a side room and showed us a variety of antiques/art objects. Toni was tempted by a chandelier but there isn’t any room in her suitcase. We left the restaurant, very happy and well fed and having enjoyed such a personal and warm evening – and very touched that this nice man opened his closed restaurant to us. A very special evening.
After looking at the website today I realize I saw the restaurant when John and I visited years ago. The outside has a Dali-esque painting on it and the patio is white and bright blue.
From Toni: I still want that chandelier it would have matched my bathroom. Maybe it will still be here next summer.