Our village is surrounded by cats!

Human Highlighter Suit Tally: 6

On Thursday evening we left Barcelona to spend a long weekend in Cadaques, a charming and picturesque fishing village on the Costa Brava in Spain.  After battling rush hour traffic—our first experience trying to leave the city at that time—we arrived in Cadaques at about 9:30.  The town is really, really, old, the streets narrow, steep and winding, and Dolores (our GPS) was completely befuddled.  After trying to allow her to guide us for a half hour—as she instructed us to turn the car into the sea and down dead end streets (we practically burned out the clutch having to back up an incredibly steep hill), we stopped, ordered some pizza, and called the folks from whom we were renting.  Isabel and Joaquin met us at the pizza place and had us follow them up to their house.

They own a few small cottages right below their own house and, as we walked the short distance from our car down a narrow path with overhanging trees and flowering bushes, several cats emerged and began to check us out. You may remember a couple of weeks ago, when we were trying to arrange a home exchange with someone in Provence, France, and received a funny note in which they told us that their house was surrounded by cats.  Well, we are in a completely different place, but the cats are everywhere!  Isabel explained that there is some kind of cat association here.  Everyone seems to leave food and water out for them, and the vets make their rounds on the streets and take them in for treatment if necessary.  It seems that the cats each have their territory, and different people care for different cats.  Isabel and Joaquin take care of Pinky, but Tango also seems to hang around our house.  C.C. and Milo think it’s the coolest.

The town slopes up steeply from the street.  It’s the kind of place that’s packed in summer but is now quite tranquil.  We spent Friday morning eating breakfast by the sea and wandering the streets, ducking into shops and galleries.  The streets are quite safe, and there were always cats for the kids to play with outside, so they were more patient outside. 

The town has been a draw for artists, for obvious reasons.  Picasso spent time here, and Dalí lived here for more than 50 years.  So, after lunching on some delicious fresh fish, we walked the short distance to Dalí’s house.  Starting in 1930, he began to buy fisherman’s houses right on the sea and ultimately strung seven of them together to create a labyrinthine structure filled with the kind of curiosities you would expect Dalí to have in his house—stuffed bears and birds, enormous Japanese parasols, giant pictures of sea urchins.  The kids, who would normally be pretty bored by a house museum, thought it was pretty cool.