Today, we take you to Cadaeques, in northeastern Spain for a tour of Dali’s house, then chug across different continents on luxury trains. Finally, moving from the sublime to the cheap, we take a look at the no-frills operation of Spirit Airlines.
Salvador Dali’s House in Cadaques, Spain
Salvador Dali was considered a madman by some, but he always noted that the difference between him and a madman was the madman was mad. His art and life was splashed across the world in a dramatic fashion. Here is a view of his house in northeastern Spain that is everything one would expect.
One of the more infamous episodes involving Salvador Dali concerns the colossal falling out with his father. Years after Mrs. Dali had passed, a young Salvador scribbled “Parfois je crache par plaisir sur le portrait de ma mère” (sometimes I spit with pleasure on the portrait of my mother) on an early painting. The incensed elder Dali threw him out of the house. Salvador later returned, handed him a sperm-filled condom with the parting words, “This is all I owe you.”
Yep. That was Dali. He was colourful, he was argumentative, but probably most of all, he liked to shock. This was, after all, the same man who, with his wife Gala, showed up at a masquerade ball in New York dressed as the Lindbergh baby and kidnapper.
Luxury train trips around the world
The Wall Street Journal takes a break from articles about air travel with a throwback to the days of yore, and luxury today. Here are five of the great train rides across the world today.
“To travel by train,” Agatha Christie enthused in her 1977 autobiography, “is to see nature and human beings, towns and churches and rivers—in fact, to see life.”
The good life, that is—at least on refined trains like the one in Christie’s “Murder on the Orient Express.” In past eras, well-heeled travelers would spend days reaching their destinations, relaxing in lavish lounge cars and enjoying the landscape along with gourmet cuisine.
Fancy trains, complete with mahogany-paneled walls, en suite bathrooms and white-glove service, have been chugging back onto the travel scene. Trips on them don’t come cheap—it is expensive to run a five-star hotel on wheels. But these old-school rides offer more than a journey back in time: They can unlock some of the world’s toughest-to-reach terrain, from the Rocky Mountains to Russia’s vast countryside. Along the way, they pause for everything from safari expeditions to world-class golf. These five trains vie for trip-of-a-lifetime status.
Spirit Airlines doesn’t care if you hate them
When airlines claim that their seats are all different, it is hard to discover where the differences are when comparing legacy carriers. But, when passengers fly with Spirit Airlines, the learn quickly that their seats are relatively unique in the airline world. They come with no frills and plenty of fees for everything from checking-in to carrying-on.
It is the airline that seems to be the most hated by passengers, just like Ryanair in Europe. But, travelers keep coming back and the airline makes money. So, Spirit Airlines doesn’t seem to care what passengers think as long as they can claim the lowest prices and the passengers keep crowding their flights.
In a compilation of some 16,000 customer ratings, Consumer Reports puts Spirit Airlines (SAVE) at the bottom of the pile when it comes to flying in America. Yet you won’t find a single person crying in the coffee over that ranking today at Spirit’s headquarters in suburban Miami.
“It’s like rating the top restaurants and putting Del Frisco’s and McDonald’s (MCD) on the same survey,” says Spirit spokeswoman Misty Pinson. “That report did not ask the one big question of who offers the best prices. And hands down, the No. 1 thing we’re told by our customers is that the price matters.”
The low price—Spirit’s average base fare of $79—is a function of an operation that strives to keep every cost as low as possible. The airline’s Airbus planes are plastered in cabin ads, and passengers face a panoply of fees before and during flights. These fees over the base fare averaged $54.75 in the first quarter, up 6 percent from the prior year, and were an important part of Spirit’s overall business. In flight, there’s no free cup of water, no video system (too much extra weight), or much legroom. You will be cramped, regardless of how short or thin you happen to be.
Charlie Leocha is the President of Travelers United. He has been working in Washington, DC, for the past 14 years with Congress, the Department of Transportation, and industry stakeholders on travel issues. He was the first consumer representative to the Advisory Committee for Aviation Consumer Protections appointed by the Secretary of Transportation from 2012 through 2018.
