I Am Not A Number

While we were in Wales, we took the opportunity to go and visit the village of Portmeirion, which was the setting for the TV series The Prisoner back in the 1960's. The series starred Patrick McGoohan and there is still a cult following for the programme.

The village was designed by architect Clough Williams-Ellis, with rescued architectural follies, which makes for a real jumble of styles. It's a private village, but is open to the public for a fee.

We were both surprised at how compact the village is, but because it's a mix of styles, there is much to catch the eye, and some of the colour schemes are pretty vibrant.







Some statues looked quite ordinary, until you took a second (or even a third glance). This one looks like quite a straightforward lion statue, until you look at what the lion has under it's foot!




It's a pretty decent way to spend a couple of hours on an overcast afternoon, and we were happy to get in for half price as it was after 3.30pm!

Be seeing you......

Yr Wyddfa

We had never hiked Snowdon, and with settled weather on the forecast we made an early start in anticipation of a few crowds on the routes and especially at the summit. We chose the Rhyd Ddu route and the sun was trying to break through as we set off.

We found we'd been a little optimistic with our weather forecast, as we were soon in cloud. At least it wasn't raining, or cold. Apparently we were hiking up an exposed ridge at this point!



We broke through the cloud layer to see beautiful sunshine and blue sky, about 200 metres below the summit.

The sunshine had brought out the big crowds and I needed to join a queue to get to the Summit marker.

Though later on, the crowds made the summit a little more crowded.

We stopped for a coffee at the visitor centre and headed down towards the Snowdon Ranger path, crossing the railway line and spotting the source of the crowds!

To access the Snowdon Ranger route we needed to walk part way down the Llanberis Path, and here you can see the crowds heading up, the summit marker, and the train heading up to the visitor centre.

We looked over towards the PYG and Miners routes, to see more crowds heading up, and it was a pleasure to regain the peace and quiet of the less popular side of Snowdon.



Our route led us off the Snowdon Ranger, through some bogs and across a slate quarry to get back to Rhyd Dhu, before crossing the Welsh Highland Railway line.