And, as the Spanish province's most famous son, they should know. For the Surrealist maestro's part, there was never any question but that Catalonia was his home and inspiration. Today, the region's Dali Triangle . . .

the seaside studio, his wife's castle, and that theme parkmuseum in Figueres . . . is easily reached from the medieval town of Girona. It remains the best and most enjoyable introduction to the topsy-turvy world of Salvador Dali.

Phrases like 'corkscrew twists' and 'vertiginous drops' just about cover the drive to Cadaques. As a child, Dali spent his summer holidays in the small fishing village and would build a house nearby in the 1960s.

As our rented car climbed over the coastal hills to get there, swinging precariously in and out of each bend, a silence gradually fell upon our group. But the twinkling bay below cheered us on and the golfball-shaped weather stations perched on the hill-tops leant a suitably bizarre air to the journey.

The same ring of mountains meant Cadaques was spared the brutal and vertical growth suffered by the villages further south on the Costa Brava. The whitewashed houses and narrow cobbled streets remain. Step inside the coolness of the 17th-century church and drop a coin into the light box.

An extraordinarily ornate and gilded altarpiece leaps out of the gloom and it's not hard to imagine the impact the baroque gaudiness had on the young Salvador.

Later he made his home at Port Lligat, a tiny harbour north of Cadaques. At first, with his wife and muse Gala, he occupied one of the fishermen's huts at the edge of the cove. As success and wealth came his way, Dali annexed the adjoining huts, expanding upwards along the hills. From the outside, it's a charming jumble of angles as whitewashed walls meeting terracota-tiled roofs.

Inside, it's a menagerie of stuffed animals. An enormous bear rises up on its hind legs in greeting. Over his shoulder, an owl fixes you with its stare. In another of the small, low-ceilinged rooms, swans stretch their wings in preparation for take off. It is the house of an eccentric collector and a rush of different tastes.

Crossbows; enormous sun umbrellas; classical statues wearing fencing masks; even an extraterrestial present from a fellow surrealist and designer of the film, Alien.

The garden is a mix of kitsch and pop-art. Pink plastic versions of his Mae West Lips Sofa pout on the edge of a phallic-shaped pool.

Adverts for Pirelli tyres and a Spanish telephone box (minus the telephone) lend a postmodern air to the proceedings. Maybe it was the sun, but I could have sworn that the plaster camel, peeking out above the garden's olive trees, winked at us as we left.

The castle Dali restored and refurbished for Gala is a somewhat more sedate affair. An hour's drive from Cadaques, it's nestled within a lush landscape of cypress trees and stone houses. This was Gala's sometime retreat from the excess and sensory overload of life at Port Lligat. It's also whispered that this is where she entertained her young lovers, with strict orders to Dali to always give advance notice of his arrival.

The medieval stout building resisted the Dali effect.

The walls with their stone coat of arms and Gothic windows remain untouched.

The surreal twists are largely confined to the garden where stone Daliesque elephants on tall spindly legs, trumpet water from their trunks.

Gala died in 1982 and is buried in the castle's barrelvaulted crypt. A giraffe watches over her tombstone, marked with a simple cross.

Her surreal knight had intended to be buried beside her, but the unmarked and empty grave tells otherwise.

True, after her death an inconsolable Dali lived here but a fire two years later forced him to move permanently to his museum in nearby Figueres, his final resting place, and now, a shrine to his legend.

After Madrid's Prado, the Museu Dali is the most visited museum in Spain. It dominates Figueres, its huge metallic dome rising above the town. The red exterior walls are studded with golden loaves of bread. Giant eggs are perched on the rooftop while mannequins strike angular poses. An old diving suit at the entrance suggests the visitor should prepare for complete immersion into Dali's world.

Dali built the museum within the ruins of the municipal theatre, firmly believing fate had a hand in the choice of location. The artist was born in Figueres in 1904, baptised in the church opposite, the theatre was the site of his first exhibtion and of course the sense of drama appealed to him. "I want my museum to be a great surrealist object, " he wrote, "the people who come to see it will leave with the sensation of having had a theatrical dream."

Feeding coins into the cadillac in the central courtyard brings rain down on the snail and ivy-infested interior. The Catalan children, all sporting the iconic moustache, love it, although what the car's chauffeur and passenger make of it remains unclear. Close by, the boat Dali and Gala used in Port Lligat sits on top of a totem pole of car tyres. Plastic tears drip from the hull, in memory of their days spent messing about in boats.

Inside you're swept up in a theme park full of surreal tricks and illusions. Roll up, roll up. . . and step into the Mae West living room where a fireplace is fashioned from her nose and her lips sofa invites you to sit down. Paintings shift and change depending on your perspective, one minute it's Abraham Lincoln, the next Gala stares out at you. Circus, kitsch and high-art combine, and by the end it's difficult to know whether he meant it all or if it was one enormous joke.

"The world needs more fantasy, " Dali once declared.

He made sure that Catalonia had its fair share.

GETTING THERE

Ryanair fly daily from Dublin to Barcelona (Girona) www. ryanair. com

FURTHER INFORMATION

Opening times and information about the Dali museums are available at www. salvador-dali. org