FIGUERES, SPAIN - This is a surreal place, as I discover when leaving the main rail station, and looking up I see multi-coloured cows hanging from wrought iron balconies and giant eggs sitting atop roofs.

Just in case you’re wondering, I haven’t had a glass of wine yet.

I shouldn’t be surprised, though. Figueres, you see, is the hometown of Salvador Dalí.

It’s also where the Teatre Museu Dalí, the museum the artistic genius designed personally before his death, is located and where his remains rest — in a crypt beside the women’s washroom.

Okay, not everyone may appreciate Dalí’s surreal artistry or his sense of humour, but everyone sure seems to like his museum, which stands as a monument to his work. Teatre Museu Dalí is also the main tourist draw to this northern Catalan town that sits nestled up against the French border. So far, over 10 million people from around the world have visited the museum since its opening in 1989.

Above: Visitors are greeted to Figueres with some unusual home decorations.

Housed in what was the former Municipal Theatre, which was heavily damaged during the Spanish Civil War but rescued from the wrecker’s ball by Dalí, the museum showcases the broadest range of his work, from his earliest experiences in 1904, through his surreal stage and up to the time of his death in 1989.

Many of Dalí’s most famous pieces are displayed here — paintings from his early period, like “Port Alguer,” “Satirical Composition” and “The Smiling Venus” hang alongside surreal works like “Barcelona Mannequin,” “Self-Portrait Splitting into Three,” “Inaugural Gooseflesh” and “The Spectre of Sex-Appeal — to name just a few.

One of the most popular displays with visitors is the Salle Mae West, which is a reflection of Dalí’s fascination with the Hollywood star of the ’30s - this is one exhibit where you really see Dalí’s illusionary genius on full display.

Above: You find some surreal works of out inside and outside the Dalí museum.

Dalí impresses even before you reach the front door of his museum. In the courtyard is his famous “Rainy Taxi” — the rain is falling inside the old Cadillac which the artist and his wife Gala actually drove coast to coast during their stay in the United States.

Although her real name was Elena Ivanovna Diakonova, Dalí’s wife liked to be simply called Gala and she was the model in many of painter’s greatest works, especially those in his latter years. The most provocative of the paintings on display of Gala in Figueres is the one entitled “Galarina” where she exposes her left breast.

Figueres is actually one of three towns in the area that shapes a tourist route known as the “Dalí Triangle.” The other towns that complete the triangle route are Pubol, where the castle Dalí built for Gala stands, and Cadaqués, the seaside village that provided much inspiration for Dalí.

Cadaqués is where Dalí spent much of his childhood and later in life he bought a small summer home in neighbouring Port Lligat, a small village on a bay next to Cadaqués. The light that shines in Cadaqués is so impressive that it drew many artists to the area, among them Dalí’s good friend Pablo Picasso.

Above: The table where Dalí entertained friends and the streets he walked as a youngster.

All three towns are in easy deriving distance of each other but charming Figueres is where you want to be based.

The narrow streets of this town once formed part of the Roman Road — the handsome buildings you see here are evidence of Figueres’ former wealth.

“Only very wealthy towns back then could afford to have a municipal theatre like Figueres has,” Aicard, my Catalan guide, tells me.

One of the most fascinating places in Figueres is a restaurant called Duran where Dalí was a regular visitor. A storage room off the restaurant’s main entrance — it looks more like a grotto — is where the artist liked to entertain his many friends and a loft above the room is where he often slept.

The room has become a shrine to Dalí and the restaurant is often packed with foreigners. Duran’s menu, by the way, is excellent and they prepare us a meal that, according to the server, Dalí preferred: starter salad drenched in lemon vinaigrette and topped with a poached egg, followed by a bream baked with potatoes, onion and tomatoes; and for dessert a carpaccio pineapple and mint.

Above: Figueres is a cheerful place to visit and it's not too far from Barcelona.

The main square in Figueres is surrounded by quaint shops and cafes and the streets leading off the square are filled with odd-shaped buildings that you may wonder if Dalí had a hand in designing.

Figueres, just like the Teatre Museu Dalí, is a masterpiece well worth seeing.