Figueres

Situated in the centre of the Empordanese plain, and capital of the High Emporda, Figueres is a friendly, bustling, commercial town. With good bus and train connections, it's a useful transport hub for the area.

Salvador Dali is Figueres' most famous resident ever and the Salvador Dali Museum is what tourists come to Figueres to see. Whatever your preconceptions about Dali, this will convince you that he was a genius.

Figueres Hotels

Hotel Spa Sant Ferriol - Jardins de Sant Ferriol Sant Ferriol, 20 km fr Figueras Figueras 17850 Spain
Hotel Pirineos - Avinguda Salvador Dalí, 68 Figueras 17600 Spain
Hotel Mas Pau - 17742 Avinyonet de Puigventós Girona Figueras Spain
Hotel Emporda - Antigua Carretera de Franca S/N Figueras 17600 Spain
Hotel President - Ronad Ferial 33 Figueras 17600 Spain
Hotel Trave - Ctra Olot S/N Figueras 17600 Spain
Ronda Hotel - Ronda Barcelona, 104 Figueras 17600 Spain

The town was also the birthplace of Narcis Monturiol - the not very famous alleged inventor of the submarine, who hardly gets a look-in. There are also an 18th-century castle with star-shaped walls, a museum of 4,500 toys and the Museu de L'Empordan containing Catalan art and archaelogical finds.

Figueres is a pleasant place to spend at least a night accommodation is reasonably priced, cafes are lively and the Hotel Duran is an excellent and very famous local restaurant. There is also a variety of Chinese eateries. Trains run to Port Bou and the bus station (just in front of the station) has connections to L'Escala and Cadaques. The tourist office is on the Plaza del Sol.

Figueres Attractions

The Salvador Dali Museum

Even if you don't think you like Dali's work, you'll love the Dali museum. From the moment you see the bread on the red walls and the giant eggs on the roof of his house, you realize that Dali was quite potty.

Inside the museum the alligators draped in Roman armour, the artificial leg dressed as a matador or the Cadillac full of passengers covered in ivy (that you can water by putting five pesetas in a slot) won't exactly change that opinion. But it will make you acknowledge that Dali was a man whose imagination knew no bounds at all.

There's no guidebook to buy because Dali insisted that visitors, too, should be led by their imagination. However, he didn't mind people putting questions to the museum attendants - most of them are so full of reverence for the man that they'll pour out their knowledge with passion.

Dali tarted work on the museum in 1970 and it opened in 1974. The building is an old theatre that was badly damaged during the Civil War. After restoring it, Dali put stumps of old beams into the auditorium walls to remind people of the earlier destruction. His obsession with bread - in addition to the loaves on his house, the devil and knight figures outside the museum carry baguettes on their heads - comes from his belief that bread is a symbol of life and normality after a period of devastation such as war.

In the theatre auditorium, gold dolls perched round the walls represent ghosts of the former theatre's ballet dancers. They stand there to welcome the public. Washbasins represent impure angels who suffer the wind and the rain in order to be cleansed of their sins. The Cadillac below them belonged to Dali and was one of only seven similar models made. Al Capone owned another but for obvious reasons his was not a convertible.

In front of a Gala nude on the stage (which becomes Abraham Lincoln when viewed through the specially mounted lens), silver bottles of Ponche Caballero (a favourite Spanish liqueur) literally reflect Dali's belief that ordinary objects can be art. See how they change the images they reflect - a face becomes a nude, a moon becomes a skull.

All the members of the band on the stage represent real people who played the sardena with a friend of Dali's, Dr Angels. The doctor made the figures from bandages and plaster of Paris.

Dali himself lies embalmed underneath the flat tomb on the stage. Most of the visitors seem to miss it and walk right over the man whose work they're admiring. Not that this would would bother him - he's apparently lying in eternal bliss on his back, with both his eyes open and focused on the glass cupola above him. Through this he can see the Ampurdan sky and the church where he was baptized.

Castle of San Fernando

The massive 18th-century castle of San Fernando, overlooking the whole town, was named after Fernando VI who had it built. During the Civil War it served as the main transit centre for members of the International Brigade, and became the Republicans' final preserve after Barcelona was taken.

It's still occupied by the military so you can't go into it. But if you're feeding fit you can walk round the five kilometres of walls.