The weather was still rubbish when we arrived and for the first time since England I was actually cold with all my layers on. We arrived at our accommodation which is really swanky with one of the most comfortable beds I've ever slept in! We decided to grab some spaghetti and have a quiet night in since we were both knackered from walking around with our gigantic bags all day.
Dali Museum
We woke up the following day to sunshine and with the intent of visiting the Salvador Dali museum, until we saw the queue. People arrived by the bus load and formed a queue which took nearly an hour to get through. We left it until later in the afternoon to visit with the flawed logic that maybe people will all follow advice to visit in the morning, leaving it relatively quiet during late afternoon nearer closing time. So after an hour queue we were herded around the museum by the relentless crowds of people, unable to really get a good look at anything. I got pretty annoyed with the following: people deciding to stop in the middle of narrow corridors, people who take steps back without looking where they're going, people who decide a narrow staircase is a brilliant place to stop and take a picture, people who take pictures of the exhibitions from the opposite side of the room when there's a large mass of people waiting to get past, tour groups who made whole rooms off limits and people who drag their screaming two year old (complete with push chair) to appreciate and contemplate the surrealist paintings and sculptures; I'm pretty sure I was more in to toy tractors at that age. So overall not a great deal of enjoyment, I could have just stood in ASDA for an hour for the same experience, although I probably would have got more out of the £20 it cost for us to both get in.
In the evening we decided to grab a cheap burger and amble about the town, only to discover there was a festival going on with plazas full of dancers and drummers which was quite a unique experience. We stood around for a while and sort of enjoyed not knowing what it was all about.
Festival parade
Festival orchestra
Today we continued to enjoy the festival by looking around the festival market that had been set up nearby, where Sally went to the same stores several times to decide she didn't want to pay a certain amount for a scarf or a retro camera. We then spent the afternoon up at the Castell de Sant Ferran which was a nice breath of fresh air after the traumatic Dali museum. We got a free audio guide and just ambled around the fort, taking in amazing views of the mountains on one side then views of the town and the sea on the other side.
Festival market
View of the mountains from the fort
Minus the crowds I quite like it here, it's a small place and has a unique atmosphere with the festival, plus the fort was definitely a highlight. To be honest I didn't have high expectations as Figueres was pretty much a place to stop on the way to Nîmes from Valencia that wasn't Barcelona - the pickpocket capital of the world that I have no incentive to visit.
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