Didn't know what to expect from Portmeirion in North Wales and wasn't quite sure of what to make of it anyway.
As a boy I remember quite vividly the television spy drama The Prisoner which ran from 1967 to 1968 and 17 episodes. It was set in The Village - an Italian style folly which was in fact Portmeirion. Apparently the location was only divulged in the credits after the final episodes although many must have sussed out where it was much earlier. Today the internet would make any kind of secrecy impossible.
The main things I remember about the Prisoner is actor Patrick McGoohan's strangled vowels (probably because he was born in the USA of Irish parents and was partly brought up in Yorkshire). That's a mixture enough to make anyone's vowels sound strangulated! I also remember the phrase "who is number one" - " you are number six" and a gigantic bubble that seemed to follow McGoohan's character around. It was all very surreal. I remember one episode where McGoohan did escape, found his way back to London (which brought me considerable relief) but was then captured by the bubble and taken back to the village.
I might have got all that wrong of course as memory can play tricks and I really must watch the series again.
Primarily though I remember the series for The Village - a strange hotch potch of crazy buildings that seemed to be straight out of the Antonio Gaudi manual of architecture.
Portmeirion is certainly strange. Today it is mainly hotels and holiday lets with a few shops sprinkled about and is run by the Clough Williams-Ellis Foundation. Williams-Ellis was the architect and a damn fine bod he sounds. It is generally accepted that he modelled Portmeirion on Portofino in Italy and certainly the similarities are obvious although I have never been to the Italian village. Just have a look at the photos at the top of the page.
Today Portmeirion seems to be a touch jaded and in need of some TLC. It has also become a mix of holiday rooms and museum with a charge to go in. That certainly gives it a very strange feel. There are some very pleasant woodland walks around the village and a number of exotic trees and flowers.
There was a Norfolk connection in Portmeirion with a statue of Horation Nelson which is included in one of the photos below.
On the way back to our holiday home at Beaumaris we stopped at Caernarfon - a small town totally dominated by an imposing castle where we had two cream teas with tea, a teacake and a cup of tea for the princely sum of £8 and it wasn't even Government 50% off day.
The photo gallery below is of both Portmeirion and Caernarfon.