Sunday, May 08, 2011

A quick photo trip around North Wales

We're home from our semi-annual trip to North Wales, and I've got a few photos to share. The main goal this time around was to visit Portmeirion, a quirky Italiante village that also served as the filming location for the 1960s cult TV show THE PRISONER. We also squeezed in a couple of other beauty spots.

Llandudno bay, one of my favourite spots on the North Wales coastline.
We had super weather, but we always seem to get lucky when we visit Wales.

The gateway to Portmeirion village! This is a great example of the architect's trademark style.
Clough Williams-Ellis used Italian design sympathetically rendered to merge into the natural landscape. He threw in recycled architecture and artifacts, and put it togeher with a sense of fun that reflects the principles of surrealism. Here the coloring on the facade is faded out to make the buidling look much older than it is, and the addition of many smaller windows makes it look larger. You can find out more about the location at www.portmeirion-village.com. There's a gorgeous hotel on site, and many of the properties in the village are now available as self catering units.

More quirkiness - can you spot which windows are real, and which are painted to look real?
Lots of surrealism here.

Portmeirion village on the cliff, the hotel pool and the estuary coastline.

The fire engine depot at Portmeirion!

This is the house that NUMBER SIX was designated in THE PRISONER (it's tiny!)
It now houses The Prisoner souvenir shop.

Over the door - proof :)

You can buy all sorts of goodies including the blazers here,
and inside they had the actual NUMBER SIX jacket in a frame.


The piazza, because every Italianate village has to have one, even if it's in North Wales.
The colonnade at the centre is recycled. 


And here I am at Caernarfon castle.

A lovely short break. Now it's back to work.