Just visited the village of Portmeirion (the place where the television series “The Prisoner” was filmed). It is quite interesting, built by a man who wanted to demonstrate that you do not have to tamper with the landscape to build an interesting bit of architecture. He built it on the side of a hill, leading down to a bay. It is quite pretty and very interesting. I was quite surprised at the number of people there. I was informed yesterday that it was a bank holiday this week (I don't know when, maybe Monday?) so that may explain why it is so busy but even so…

Anyway, I am sitting in the car looking at a number of rather large “hills” here in the middle of Wales. It is quite breathtaking and it makes me wonder why we hear so little of the wonderful countryside here in England. It seems to me that this particular area is basically where people from England go for a holiday. There are a lot of “caravans” (Recreation Vehicles) on the road and everyone seems to be in a hurry which makes me suspect that they are from the island (England). The landscape is varied and all very heavily vegetated (yes, even the Yorkshire Dales and the Scottish Highlands). There are an AWFUL lot of sheep round about here and it is funny to be sitting here typing and listening to them (along with the infinite number of cars that seem to be passing me on the road). I should really get out more often…

Well, I found an easy (or, rather, easier) route into London so I will be taking that. I booked my room for tonight, only thing is that they did not have a single so it looks like I will have a double tonight and a single for the rest of the nights until Monday.

I will miss the countryside and I hope to come back in a little while to visit again, hopefully with someone so that we can both enjoy it (I don't know if I really enjoy travelling alone – it is good to 'scout' out an area before visiting again with others and doing a more in-depth review but as a tourist it is not fun being alone, there is so much I want to share and talk about but I don't talk back a lot to myself so the conversation is pretty much one sided).

I sent a couple of postcards off from the village, one to one of my co-workers who is a big Prisoner fan so he will get a kick out of it (the postcard was from the village) and one to mother and Alex so they will know that I am al-right.

Another interesting thing about Portmeirion is that it is actually a village, people live there, yes, it is small but they do and don't seem to mind all of the people that visit daily (the residences are, of course, private).

Anyway, onward ho!

⇒ Continue to London (yep, London)