Hello from Wales and a very bleak Wales at that. Our poor old captain found yet again that the wind was not his friend when he tried to dock. It took us a good hour before we were finally tied down. Consequently all the tours were delayed. It really didn't worry us that much. What can you do? We had some young lasses, dressed in traditional Welsh attire, waiting for us on the dock as we disembarked.
Port Meirion was our destination today. Have you heard of it? I certainly hadn't but if you google it you will find a wealth of information. It is situated on the coast of northern Wales and the "folly" village was designed by Sir Clough Williams-Ellis and constructed between 1925 and 1960. The colourful buildings are Italianate in design and the magnificent gardens are the perfect backdrop.
Smoke & Mirrors is a good description of the village. Some buildings are simply facades while others are holiday lets. Apparently a lot of famous people come and stay here for the remoteness and quietness and the British TV series "Prisoner" put Port Meirion on the map. I for one have never heard of this show.
Walking around the village it seems that the designer had a bit of a penchant for turquoise and gold as there is a lot of that colour scheme, that's actually pretty stunning.
Sir Clough Williams-Ellis was built to show how a beautiful site could be developed without spoiling it. His moto was "Cherish the past, adorn the present, construct for the future". Port Meirion is spread out over 70 acres with the majority of it being heavily timbered. There are lots of pathways to follow but we were content to walk with our guide.
It took us almost two hours to wander around the village and by that time we had built up an appetite as there were a lot of steep sections to negotiate down near the waterfront. Lunch was included in our tour and once we had all meet back at the bus we were taken to Castell Deudraeth, a magnificent three story castle, for a delicious two course lunch. No dinner for us tonight!
Back on board the bus and our last stop on the way back to the ship was at Carnarvon (Caernarfon) where the Prince of Wales (now King Charles) was invested all those years ago. Do you remember him standing with the Queen on the Castle's glass balcony? I do.
We could only stop a short while in Carnarvon that is another lovely village with colourful houses but these are actually real houses! The drive back to the ship took around an hour and a half and our guide never stopped pointing out things of interest. She would say "I'll just stop talking now for a bit" and the bit would be a whole two minutes before she was off again. However, most of it was interesting. She pointed out this bridge to us but I was more interested in the house in the middle of the river. A very strange place to build your home.
The tour was one of the longest tours we had done - around six hours - but it was also one of the best tours. Even though the day was on the bleak side you could plainly see that Wales is a beautiful country.
No comments:
Post a Comment