Day 11 - Cork Industry and Salvador Dali Influence

After breakfast we traveled to the nearby town of Palafrugell.

There we visited Vigas cork producers - an old, but much more automated producer than the one we visited in Extramadura.  Vigas makes 80 million corks a year,  60 for wine and 20 for champagne. The entire cork industry produces over 13 billion corks each year world wide.   Sixty to Seventy percent all cork is rejected by stopper makers - it is reprocessed for other uses including composite wine corks.

Bottle corks are printed by laser with the name/logo of the individual winery.  Many wineries do not want the name of the cork manufacturer printed on the cork, others do. Corks produced by Vigas have a small "JV" layered on the cork stopper.

We went to a large liquor store across the street from the cork manufacturer and the prices were amazing.  We bought two bottles of Miguel's favorite wine to share with the group later that evening.

Our next stop was the Cork Museum where we had a sensory workshop to test our capability to detect and differentiate smells of cork.  This was done by introducing these smells into water.  Some of the fragrances were vanilla, eucalyptus, conifer, and forest.  Gerry did much better than Myra!

As we visited the cork museum, Myra and Tom were interviewed by Spanish TV about this incredible tour.

We visited the Salvador Dali & Gala home and museum.  We did not know much about Salvador Dali, his art or about his wife Gala before visiting this museum.  Dali was an eccentric artist that apparently drew the attention of people not just because of his art but because of his actions and lifestyle.

According to history, these two had an open marriage.  He had a phobia of women's genitalia and practiced candaulism (the sexual practice in which a man exposes his female partner to others for their voyeuristic pleasure).  Gala had numerous extramarital affairs.  The Castle of Pubol, with the museum and outdoor gardens, was bought by Dali for Gala.  He agreed not to visit there without getting advance permission from her in writing.

The outdoor garden had sculptures of elephants which were a recurring theme in his art.  Elephants are viewed as symbols of strength, dominance and power due to their size and Dali represented them in his paintings and the sculpture with spindly legs.  This made them so interesting to look at - more so than a realistic sculpture of an elephant.

Tomorrow we visit the fishing village of Palamos and get to watch the fish auction.