Figueres

Last month my parents came to visit, and Joe, the greatest boss in the world (he's standing behind me!), offered to take us to Figueres for a tour of the Salvador Dali museum. The drive through Catalunya was stunning: out of the left window the snowy peaks of the Pyrenees, and out of the right the sun rising across the Mediterranean Sea. If the drive was impressive, that was nothing compared to the exhibitions inside the gallery. Dali is renowned for his powerful Surrealistic creations, and we were all really looking forward to exploring the museum. The (sur..) reality of the amazing gallery inside was even better than I'd expected. It was like walking into a dream. It's impossible to do justice to Dali's work through mere descriptions... there aren't enough superlatives or adjectives! I can only post some pictures and encourage you to visit if you ever get the chance.

My favourite piece was a painting in the main hall. I remember my Dad pointing out a picture of what appeared from my angle to be a naked woman bathing in a dreamy landscape. "Do you see it?" he said, to which I replied "see what?" My Dad told me to squint my eyes and look again. Suddenly the portrait had changed completely, and I was looking at a picture of Abraham Lincoln! It was incredible!! From different distances and different perspectives you can make out the two very different images from the same picture. The genius of Dali!

She turned into... 

You may remember a story about Brendon getting lost whilst skiing in France. Well our visit to Figueres was on the same day. So as we happily drove home I got a phone call informing me that Brendon had been missing for 6 hours. We all looked out of the window to the snowy mountains in the distance and thought of Brendon, the Laurie Lee of our age!

Thanks to Joe for taking us, it was one of the highlights of my year so far. Here's a final picture of the whole troop: me and my parents, and Joe with his wife Alicia and daughter Claudia. To the Salas family, muchas gracias!

James