Highlight of our holiday was a pilgrimage to the Prisoner Village...
Apparently I AM a Number After All!
Key by-line of the 196 TV series 'The Prinsoner' is 'I am not a number', but this took on a rather ironic turn when we made our visit to Portmarion during our holiday in Wales.
First of all, I was a little disappointed to find the famous attraction awash with tourists - like ourselves. Naturally, I should not have been surprised but dues to my image of the village being from the original TV series, I was far more used to seeing the location somewhat more sparsely populated! 😉
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| Above: Goddamit! Even when I think I have a empty location some git photo bombs my shot! It was as if he was waiting for me take a picture! |
While this is a bit selfish of me, it did make getting those iconic location photos a bit tricky. There were groups of tourists everywhere and they always seemed to be standing exactly in the spot that obscured some interesting detail or other. Ah well. ðŸ˜
What niggled me more was that - quite obviously - the large proportion of the visitors were not - gasp - Prisoner fans! LOL ...Again, this is a bit selfish of me.
Anyway, moaning aside (don't get me started on the screeching visitor's kids) I just had to block out the crowds and focus on the Prisoner related architecture. One thing did cheer me up though, and that was the table number we had when we sat down for a snack and a drink at one of the many cafes...
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| Above: I am a number after all! |
Ignoring the Crowds...
This is my first visit to Portmeiron so it's something of a pilgrimage, as such I just had to blank out the other visitors and try and get the photographs that I wanted with as few unwanted persons as I could in the frames. I did the best I could.
The village is truly a magical place, in both it's actual form as a location and it's history and for a cult TV series set. I could appreciate the other-worldliness of the place, the weirdness of realising that you know you are in Wales and yet here you are in an Italian resort (the weather can be a give away, but we were lucky)!
But, the main attraction - for me - was the connection to one of my favourite 1960s TV series...
It would require a completely separate post - or number of posts - to go over why this British series has developed such a avid fan base and become a cult classic. Suffice to say that the series was a milestone in British TV and equally confused and fascinated it's audiences!
Anyhoo, to the visit...
The main problem was - as I hinted - getting good photos of the iconic Portmeirion village without flocks of visitors standing in the shot. A near impossible mission really - particularly as people tend to be pig ignorant and are quite happy to waly right in front of you even when it's obvious that you are trying to take a photo! (Rant!) 😡
So, moaning aside, did Portmeirion live up to my expectations?
Absolutely. The resort - and it is in part still a working resort - is so fantastical and fairy tale-ish that you are simply agog at the sights. The essential fantastical look of the place is further enhanced when you add the additional meaning associated with The Prisoner.
Every building has specific conertations based on it's appearance in the show - whether it be (as featured in the series) 'The Town Hall', 'The Citizen's Advice Bureau', 'The Old People's Home' or 'No. 6's Residence'.
Unlike the majority of TV 'sets' it's strange to actually be able to see specific locations in situ and you it's really sort of spooky (if you are a fan).
Fall Out...
I could have easily have spend several days gathering the shots I wanted - matching them up to specific scenes in the TV series - but I was exceptionally tired by mid afternoon. There is a LOT to see and - warning - a lot of ground to cover, some of it involving a hill or lots of steps.
The trip down to the beach really took it out of me and that ended my day.
I should - at this point - mention that Portmerion does a special concretionary rate for those with a disability AND a 'carer'. This saved us a fortune. They also have special disabled parking spaces right next to the entrance.
This all added to the enjoyment of the day as sometime the 'disability' thing can be a bit of a cause of pre visit jitters. But it was a mark of the whole holiday to Wales that all the attractions we visited we very 'disability friendly' and we benefitted from concessionary rates in the majority of them.
The drive back to our 'base' at Criccieth only took 18-20 minutes and was very easy to navigate.
All in all, Wales is a magical place to visit and we thoroughly enjoyed ourselves. There were more attractions and points of interest than we had time to visit them all. But - for me - Portmeirion was the highlight of the week.
Even the wife seemed sure that she wanted to go back to Criccieth as there was still a lot she wanted to do (sadly the Snowden railway trip she wanted to d was sold out) so I will get a second bite of the apple with another visit to Postmeridian in the future!
...So it will be literally a case of 'be seeing you'! 😉👌
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Link to the official Porteirion website (opens in new window)
Link to my Portmerion FLICKR photo album (opens in new window).
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