Greg's big day out

[vilakins]

Today was Greg's day after all my Blake's 7-ness last weekend.


We went on the Blaenau-Ffestiniog railway, pulled by a small steam-train called Linda. A fellow passenger was an old chap in his 70s who has been coming every year since the 50s. He said the designer of Portmeirion was "a nutter who wore plus-fours and yellow stockings" and that it used to be notorious as a "dirty weekend hotel" after the war. Hee.

We spent the afternoon in Portmeirion wandering about the village and gardens. The place is absolutely delightful. Greg described it as like an orchestral piece in which different instruments blend to make a harmonious whole, as the mixed architectural styles do go well together. Lovely place and I wish we could have stayed there, but our B&B complete with ancient landlady is charming. In the Prisoner shop Greg bought two Prisoner books, the 2nd DVD which he's got back home but scratched, 3 sound-track CDs and was tempted by a 6-foor inflatable Rover. Actually I wouldn't have minded one but we figured the cats would claw it and it would make a hell of a bang.

For snowgrouse (who loves the name Pont y Pant and linda_joyce who didn't know what 'pant' meant, I deduced it was either 'hidden' or 'hollow' from the 'Pant cudd -- hidden dip' signs on the road. I asked a Welsh speaker and it's 'hollow' so Pont y Pant is 'Bridge in the hollow'.


Well, that's it from a cybercafe in Portmadog...