Tuesday 12th June - Portmeirion

Well one thing is for sure - the bed is REALLY comfy! We both slept very well, and agree that this is probably the most comfortable bed that we have had in any of the places we have stayed. Indeed, it is probably just as good as ours at home.

I had the inevitable lie in this morning, and when i finally awoke, it was to find the sun shining, and the start of a glorious day. Despite the weather forecast threatening rain again, the sun has shone pretty much all day, and even though there have been clouds, there has been no sign of the wet stuff. (so far.....the forecast on the TV for tonight and tomorrow is not good)

We took advantage of the good weather to go to Portmeirion - as Sally said, i have wanted to go there for years, so it would be a shame to miss out on going on a nice day......it "might" be the only one we get....

We are only a few miles from it, and so it didn't take very long to get there. I think it took almost as long to discover how to get into the car park as the rest of the journey had taken! The entrance driveway seemed to go on for ever.

Once into the village, i have to say that i was not disappointed - it wasn't quite how i expected it to be, but if anything it was better. Its always a fear that when you have looked forward to something for so long that it turns out to be a let down....that was not the case with Portmeirion.

Yes, it would have been nice if you could have gone into more of the buildings and looked around them, but i can understand why they wont let you. We had a good wander around the village, checking out the shops, and the bits you could go into.

We went down as far as the beach, and even walked along the coastal path for some way. The sand seems to go on for miles, but i gather from the info that the tide can come in very quickly.

The buildings in the village are truly stunning - you feel that you are somewhere in the Med rather than in North Wales. The colours really sing to you. It is wonderfully designed and well looked after.

I was using the 35mm film camera, which made a nice change, while Sally took command of the digital one. This meant that while she was going crazy with hers, making sure that we have photos of everything, i was trying to be a bit more "artistic", and was brushing up on my technique. It was good practice for me on calculating the exposures.....despite it being a couple of years or so since i have needed to, i was still able to predict the required exposures pretty accurately,and didn't need to make too many changes once i had set them and looked through the viewfinder to check the readings the camera was giving.

We spent four hours or so at the village, had a couple of cups of tea, and a turkey & salad roll each. We also took advantage of the road train to have a look around the woodland section of the estate.The whole visit was very successful in our opinions, and very good value at £10.00 a head.

On the way back to Criccieth, we stopped off at the Lidl in Porthmadog to top up on provisions, before heading back to the apartment. I managed to fall asleep during the early football match, having gotten myself very comfortable on the beanbags in the bay window. I have managed to create a kind of nest for myself with them, and once i get settled on them, i'm as happy as can be!

Dinner was a mix of tuna, mackerel and salad, which was both tasty and filling. The evening is still very clear and the views are MUCH better than they were yesterday - you can see much further and the tops of the mountains in the distance are very clear today. The waves are lapping onto the shore below the window, and sound a lot more fierce than they look. It almost sounds stormy, and then you look and it all seems quite gentle really.

Sally is busy doing some colouring for her cards, the football is on the telly, and all in all, it has been a really good day. Let's hope for another good one tomorrow!!











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