I’ve long wanted to visit the Costa Brava town of Cadaques (and the Cap de Creus National Park) but the single road in and out of Cadaques has been restricted to just motorbikes and cars. That changed late last year and motorhomes may now use the road. It was a no brainer where we would be going once we crossed into Spain. We booked ourselves into ‘Wecamp Cadaques’ for the two nights that I thought would allow us sufficient time to experience the small town of Cadaques and give me the opportunity to explore some of the Cap de Creus National Park. I thought a hike to and from the Far de Cap de Creus would do the trick – that’s the lighthouse.
Cadaques is one of the more picturesque towns I have visited in my time – a jumble of steep cobbled alleys and whitewashed houses over which the 17th century Santa Maria Church presides. It has changed over the years; fishing has slowly given way to tourism (we were told that just three fishermen in Cadaques are now licensed to fish on a commercial basis) but that is to be expected in a town with the pulling power of this one – Salvador Dali – and it’s general inaccessibility has ensured it is not at all tacky.
Cadaques is most famous for being where the Surrealist artist Salvador Dali and his wife Gali lived. They bought a house on the water’s edge in the PortLligat area in 1930, just a stones throw from Wecamp Cadaques and he lived and worked there until his wife died in 1982. The house has been left very much as it was when they both lived there (complete with unfinished canvases and the paintbrushes he was using) and now serves as a museum. It has been described as “weird and wacky” (as is expected of someone like Dali) but the Salvador Dali House Museum draws thousands of visitors throughout the year. It has also served to draw numerous other artists to the town and there are plenty of art galleries, workshops and craft stores dotted around the place.
The Santa Maria Church on the tiny Plaza de la Iglesia is a must see; if not for the pretty church itself, for the panoramic view over the southern side of the town and it’s coastline. There are numerous pretty coves and beaches to the north and south of the town. The Playas des Llaner Gran i Petit are the two in the town itself.
Cadaques is also home to the Michelin Recommended Compartir Restaurant (I think I mentioned that in a Roses blog?) but we weren’t inclined to try it. There were enough other good restaurants in Cadaques and they weren’t charging anywhere near as much as Compartir.
One of the two days we spent in Cadaques was Sant Jordi’s Day – that’s Saint George’s Day in England. Sant Jordi’s Day is also the Catalan holiday of ‘Books and Roses’ which is not unlike our Saint Valentine’s Day except that in Catalonia, men buy women roses and the women buy men a book. I’m not entirely sure of the significance of the book but, judging by some of the book covers on the stalls of an impromptu market that day (three stalls selling roses and three stores selling books), it could be that the women buy the men a book with a view towards educating their man about a woman’s particular wants and needs…
Our last night in Cadaques was special. We sat for many hours outside a tiny, very friendly restaurant across the bay from the centre of the town… drinking the local wine, eating tapas, talking and watching Cadaques change as night came on.
I’ll walk Cap de Creus in the morning…