Portmeirin to Porthmadog (September 7, 2025)

On the way down from our Mountain Spirit trip, we got off two stops early to walk to a place on Roz's scratch map. Portmeirion.


Gate house at Portmeirion.

No we didn't break her. I came upon her like this and she was looking at the ceiling of the entrance. But it makes a great picture.
Portmeirion was designed and built by Sir Clough Williams-Ellis near his own home from 1925-1975.
He wanted to show that architecture could show a naturally, beautiful location without spoiling it. He was an avid environmentalist and spent his career developing and supporting conservation of the Welsh rural lands.
He loved the Mediterranean and especially the town of Portfino. 
Portmeirion has been described as a gay, deliberately irresponsible reaction against dull, sterile modern architecture.
It has also been described as a fanciful, fantastic collection of architectural relics. In fact Williams-Ellis used many old and tired buildings in his designs.
Giant chess board. Human sized.
Also described as relaxing and enchanting with playful absurdities.
For Wes, his excitement for this place was because the show The Prisoner was filmed here. 
It was about an ex intelligence agent who is abducted and brought to a mysterious coastal village called The Village. Here he is given the number 6 and has no name. Everyone in the village is a number. Although he tries to escape the people are under high tech surveillance including a white balloon named Rover. It is an allegorical, science fiction, spy fiction and psychological drama. I believe my mother watched it as pitures of the main character are familiar and I will have to find it when I get home."I am not a number. I am a free man."
This is the first building renovated and restored in the Portmeirion design. Of course, it looks like a Mediterranean Seaside villa. It is in fact a four star hotel.
Danger on the beach.
Portmeirion is a resort with two hotels and many self catering apartments. It is now run by a charitable organization. You can pay to stay here or pay an entrance fee to visit it like we did.
Unique wall decorations.
All in all it was a very interesting but bizarre place.
We walked the two kilometers back to where we had gotten off the train on our Mountain Spirit ride and had been told that if we could get our butts back to the train station by 1610 we could hop on the last returning train. Different train and engine.

Our walk back to Porthmadog was a little soggy. Wes has decided that he needs a new raincoat as he says he looks ridiculous in his clear poncho. The laughter from the rest of us might convince him he's right.




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