Friday, 9th May
It’s our last full day today in North Wales – tomorrow we’re heading home bright and early. On our itinerary today, we’re going to explore the nearby town of Porthmadog and then travel the short distance to Portmeirion – 4 miles, around 15 minutes away! – somewhere I’ve always wanted to see, since I first watched ‘The Prisoner’ on TV.
Porthmadog
10.44am: Porthmadog, here we come!
Since we arrived here in North Wales, we’ve pretty much driven through this town every day. It’s a ‘buzzy’ place, has its own railway station (like many of the small towns in this area) and where the biggest shop is probably the Tesco (that opened in 2021 and pretty much dominates the retail landscape). There is an Aldi and a Lidl but they’re tucked away from the main drag. The town has a population of around 4000, and we think we saw most of them, wandering around the shops whenever we passed through. We learned that the locals simply call their town ‘Port’ whilst for fans of town-name-spelling, up until 1972 it was spelt ‘Portmadoc’ – who knew? 🤔
11.00am: A final top-up for EVie in the town’s car-park gave us about an hour to look around the town. First stop? A walk to the Town’s harbour…
11.45am: …before taking a short break at the ‘local’ for a ‘swift half’! 🙂. The weather was now warming up a treat, and it certainly felt hotter than the forecast 15℃ – more like 20! 😎☀️😎☀️
And then, it was back to walking around the town with no particular destination in mind! 🙂
12.25pm: We returned to EVie, who was now 97% full. The warm weather not only benefits us humans, it also helps EVs too! With over 270 miles of range, it would give us enough range for the rest of today and the journey home tomorrow too – and still leave us with around 100 in reserve.
Porthmeirion
12.45pm: We headed for nearby Portmeirion famous for its architecture, greenery but probably better known for where the iconic 60’s TV series ‘The Prisoner’ was filmed. If there’s anyone on the planet who doesn’t know what I’m talking about, take a look here on Wikipedia for a detailed overview. Given that I’m such a fan of this mind-bending, often confusing TV show, I can’t figure out why this was to be my very first visit!
But first a little bit of context…
“I am not a number…”
It’s taken me more than 50 years, but today, I finally got to visit ‘The Village’. From watching the very first episode of ‘The Prisoner’ as a ‘nipper’ (I was 11!) back in September 1967, I’ve always been fascinated by not just the story, but the whole ‘look and feel’ of the series. From the dark story arc, the iconography, the scripting, and the general weirdness of it all (‘Rover’ anyone?), whatever McGoohan was ‘on’ when he wrote this, it was obviously powerful stuff. That, or he was simply a prophetic genius! I know which camp my Dad was in! He went from being a ‘McGoohan superfan’ (based on his enjoyment of ‘Danger Man’) to ‘wtf is this rubbish?’ in around 2 seconds, having impatiently sat through all 17 episodes. He promptly switched off the final episode (the ‘big reveal’) halfway through and never watched anything with Patrick McGoohan in ever again! 🫨.
For me, thank goodness in later years, someone invented VHS and I could rewatch that pivotal final episode! 🙂
Back to today: Admission costs £20 per person but if you book Afternoon Tea at the Portmeirion Hotel (more about that later) at £36 per head, they let you in (and out!) of the attraction for free. Thanks for the tip, Sue! 👍🙂. Portmeirion, is proud to be the third most visited attraction in Wales, but today wasn’t very busy.
Well, we certainly had the perfect weather for it, and it wasn’t too busy either. Whatever your reasons for coming here, you can’t fail to be moved by Clough Williams-Ellis’s architecture!
‘Dull’ and ‘subtle’ are not words you’d usually use to describe Portmeirion!
“Never meet your heroes!”
Ann came with no prior knowledge of The Prisoner and its connection with Portmeirion, whilst I was on a mission! Some say: ‘Never meet your heroes’ and for both of us, after a thorough wander around, that’s what today felt like to us. It was all a bit underwhelming. Ann expected it to be larger with more to see, whilst I was disappointed that there seemed to very little reference to the TV series that put this place on the map. All I saw was a bust of Patrick McGoohan near the entrance and a cardboard cutout of ‘No 6’ outside a shop. I genuinely think they’re missing a trick here, whilst Ann felt it was expensive (£20 admission, per person) for what there was.
Afternoon Tea
We’d booked Afternoon Tea at the Hotel located at the end of the Village. It was well positioned with stunning views across the water.
Inside, the Hotel’s restaurant was lacking in people and therefore atmosphere, whilst the service was a tad slow and inattentive. However, it was more than made up for the size of the portions! Even we had to admit defeat and request the obligatory ‘doggy bag’.
3.25pm: We waddled our way back to the car and fifteen minutes later, we were back at the Cottage.
And so…
Well, that’s it for this trip to Wales. We’re heading home tomorrow. It’s been a great break where the weather has been ‘acceptable’ overall with no rain and quite a few very warm days. It could have been even warmer, but with so many of our destinations so close to the sea, the sea breeze always wins in our experience – and some days were absolutely freezing if you were in the wrong place. Culturally, there’s been lots to see, with plenty of castles and beaches to keep my camera busy! Another benefit was that everywhere was so close to each other! Contrasting directly with our typically ‘three hours in the saddle’ travels in New Zealand, we never seemed to be more than half an hour away from anything here in North Wales. If there’s one lasting memory of this one, it was the beaches – that seemed to stretch for miles and where I’ve never seen sand so fine and skies so blue (especially for the UK!). Whether you’re a beach fan, have an obsession for Castles, or just like looking around small towns, we’d thoroughly recommend this part of Wales for a holiday.
Liverpool and the Wirral was a very pleasant surprise. I’m not sure what we were expecting (apart from a good Internet connection – but never mind!) but it was very easy to get around, full of very friendly and helpful locals with easy-to-use (and cheap) public transport. Revisiting Liverpool after almost 10 years, this time with my cultural head on, was a real delight!
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I’m really surprised at Ann’s reaction to Portmerion😳?
Like you, it’s somewhere I’d always fancied going. I remember watching The Prisoner with my dad, a wonderful memory and last year, I was dropped outside by Roy, as our Evie wasn’t allowed in. I spent the day wandering around, in awe of it all. Also, like you, I had wonderful weather, which I’m sure helped? I had a delicious lunch outside, in the square. I felt the staff there were really friendly and attentive. Sadly, I didn’t have the afternoon tea that you had 😍. That looked incredible.
It wasn’t packed with tourists on the day I went, just enough people. Photographic opportunities were everywhere. The architecture was wonderful. The colours! The connection with dad🥰, he would have enjoyed it, too. Wow! A feast for the eyes and one which I will always remember. There were places on the outskirts of the village, I didn’t get to see. There was just so much. I would go back and do it all again, in a heartbeat. It was one of the best and most beautiful places I’ve ever visited. There were so many walks around the village and lots of amazing vantage points for more photography, too. Are you sure you went to the same place Ann? 🤣. (I’m going to look at my photos of it again now😉).