We had taken a lot of time searching for a place to stay while in Barcelona, and settled for a rather spartan apartment/hotel-room (aparthotel) because it was only about 200 yards from a metro station.
Also, there are two bakeries in that short stretch; this came in handy this morning, as we needed something to eat on the way to the metro, which brought us to the main train station.
We'd booked seats on the 10:50 AM fast train (~125 mph) to Figueres, about an hour away. The fast trains have a security checkpoint where they scan everyone's bags; the normal/slow trains do not. 🤔
After everyone was already seated, they announced a last minute platform change due to a problem with the train we were on; we made a mad dash back up to the station with a few hundred people to find the new train (which was the 11 AM slow train, about 2.5 hours). Sabrina reminded me that the announcement was possibly only in Catalan, or perhaps very fast Spanish garbled by the PA system; this was enough to elicit action from many people on the train, but we had no idea what was going on until we asked the couple next to us to translate (into recognizable Spanish). They were similarly confused, but not by the language; the announcement had been for track "13 or 14", so we rushed to the new platform with them, but guessed wrong and almost missed the new train. When we found eventually found the right platform, there was just a woman holding up a paper sign that said "Girona / Figueres" on it.
Thankfully, we had built a buffer into our itinerary in Figueres, intending to explore the city a bit and/or have a real lunch. Instead, we spent that buffer standing on an overcrowded train (first 90 minutes or so; many people de-trained in Girona) and then watching cornfields and very dry landscapes slowly pass outside the window for the next hour.
Eventually, we arrived at our destination and managed to muster enough Spanish to learn (with the help of our new friends, to translate from Catalan):
- We're entitled to a full fare refund, by going to a Renfe train station after 24 hours, and
- Our return trip on the fast train, later that evening, wouldn't (shouldn't?) be affected.
As in Barcelona, the fountains were also off (and drained, in this case).
As we approached the Dalí Museum, signs of his influence became too obvious to miss.
After walking into town, we had just enough time before our 2 o'clock timed-entry ticket to get a snack at a nearby restaurant. There were people in line who had experienced our same train-fun today, but had 12:30 PM or similar tickets, made to essentially fly standby and hope there was available quota capacity.
We toured around the museum for about an hour, following the suggested route from our guide book; the museum rather intentionally doesn't have any recommended order, or audioguide, as most others seem to. All you get is a map and some room numbers.
Dalí is buried in a vault under the main stage, apparently.
Upstairs, there are a few hallways/rooms full of other art that he just happened to enjoy and/or collect.
I only took a few photos, of the more interesting or stunning displays.
Sort of outside, but also attached/included is an exhibit of jewelry that he designed, fabricated by and for various other artisans.
It was a bit after 3 PM when we finished, and we hadn't eaten much. We debated the merits of trying to get real food, vs just grabbing something quick and heading to our next destination. Our return train wasn't until 6:30ish, but we weren't sure how long the next thing would take, so we opted for the quick-and-easy choice.
On our walk out of town, we saw the... back? side? of the museum/theater. I think this view was also available as a refrigerator magnet in the gift shop.
A mile or so up the hill, northwest of town, is the Castell de Sant Ferran. It translates to "castle", but is perhaps more accurately called a fort.
The view to the northeast was lovely, including the Pyranees in the distance; We were only about 15 miles from the French border.
We weren't really sure if we'd be going inside, or just walking around outside, or.. something else. The green sign, above, said that there's a 3 kilometer (~1.9 miles) trail around the perimeter. When we reached the entrance, though, we discovered that it was only 5€ to get inside, so we opted to take the self-guided tour.
There was apparently some other tour option, and it required the participants to wear hardhats? We saw them again, later, driving around between the outer and inner walls.
The fort (they called it a "bastion fort" in the intro movie we watched) was enormous, and we had the place almost to ourselves; there was one other couple, ahead of us.
It has a rather long and storied history, which the Wikipedia article doesn't seem to cover. Their official site has more info, and I just now learned what the people in hardhats were up to.
These corner turrets very much reminded me of the forts in Old San Juan, Puerto Rico. I haven't blogged that trip (yet?), though, so I can't link to it.
Sadly, they were all closed (unlike the ones in San Juan).
The weather was just perfect for this sort of activity. We wouldn't have minded if it were slightly colder, though.
The lowest part that we went to was originally the stables area, at one point housing up to 500 horses for the cavalry. It was quite impressive.
It was probably around 5 PM when we finished touring the fort, which left us plenty of time to walk to the other train station for our (faster) return trip. We even had time to enjoy a snack in the station's cafe, which was nice because we hadn't really eaten lunch and weren't sure we'd really have time for dinner.
In the distance, near the center of this photo, the fort is visible on the hilltop.
The train was slightly late (they blamed "technical problems in France"), pushing our return to Barcelona-Sants to around 7:45 PM. Our next scheduled event was at 9:30 PM, across the city.
We took the metro over to Urquinaona, near the northern corner of the Gothic quarter where it blurs into Eixample, ultimately headed for the Palau de la Música Catalana.
One of the restaurant recommendations we had gotten from the random American we met at the beer hall yesterday happened to be nearby (Casa Lolea), and I convinced Sabrina that we could eat a full tapas meal in under an hour. This also required some persuasion of the hostess/waitress that we could vacate a table before the next reservation; they were able to accommodate us, amazingly, and just before a huge rush.
The DIY tomato bread puzzled us for a few seconds; we must have looked confused, because the waitress asked for confirmation that we knew what the objective was. Also: we might need to start making this at home, semi-regularly.
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