Day Trip Coach Excursion From Preston To Llandudno Saturday 4th May 2024

This was my third visit to Llandudno in North Wales with Walton’s Coaches.  It isn’t just a love of the town that drew me back.  My first visit’s photos came out blurred due to a camera fault.  Shots taken on my second trip were among those lost when my external hard drive storage crashed last year. 

Third time lucky, hopefully.

White Rabbit statue – Llandudno

The trip was originally booked for Sunday 5^th May but Walton’s drew it back to the 4^th which I was  happy with.  Departure was as usual from near Lane Ends in Preston, though they have moved the starting point to round the corner from its usual spot.

Pub sign, the Links – Llandudno

I got on the coach, though another passenger due to start from Lane Ends too, almost missed it as she went to the old connection point.  The driver tried phoning her to check she was coming and accidentally rang me instead. She was eventually spotted and boarded safely and we were only delayed a few minutes so everyone travelling was in good spirits. With just a brief rest stop at a motorway service station near Chester, we reached Llandudno at about twenty to one, with four hours to explore the town as we wished.

Vintage steam engine, one of several. – Llandudno

The weather forecast was for all day light rain, but it remained dry and warm all day despite heavy cloud cover.

The Bank Holiday Weekend and start of the holiday season was marked with the town’s popular ‘Victorian extravaganza’.  Many people  were dressed up, there were fairgrounds, vintage steam engines, hurdy-gurdy players, stage magic and much more on the street and promenade.  Though crowded, the atmosphere was joyous.

I called in two excellent pubs, The Queen Victoria (apt for a Victoriana themed weekend) and the Links (Qwesty). 

Alice statue – Llandudno

I got photos of much of the colourful entertainment, along with images of pubs, their signage,  statues themed round Alice In Wonderland (Alice Liddel, on who the character was based, frequently stayed in the town, and Lewis Carroll visited her on occasion. There was  much more to see besides.

Street entertainer – Llandudno

The coach got me back to Lane Ends about 7.30pm (we hit much less traffic on the return trip), and I rounded off the night with a few pints in The Tap End and a take away pizza.

Many thanks to Walton’s Coaches, the passengers, and the people of Llandudno too.

The seafront – Llandudno

All photos taken by me

Links – Walton’s Coaches https://www.waltonscoaches.com/ 

If you like the histories of pubs and their signs check out the Inn Sign Society https://innsignsociety.com/

The Llandudno Alice In Wonderland Trail https://www.visitwales.com/things-do/culture/cultural-attractions/alice-wonderland-tour-llandudno

Arthur Chappell.

Coach Excursion – Portmeirion North Wales 12th August 2022

From my childhood viewing of Patrick McGoohan The Prisoner TV series, I always wanted to visit the show’s main location, Portmeirion. 

The Hotel Portmeirion

The village (The un-named Village of the series) was purposely built as a tourist attraction centred on its main hotel, The Hotel Portmeirion, and much of the Village is privately owned, so an admission fee is charged on top of travel costs to get there. 

Sir Clough-William Ellis built the Italian Villa style village gradually between 1925 and 1978.  There is a great deal more to see than the locations used in the 17 episodes of The Prisoner.  The village has many brightly coloured houses, often set into the cliffs (the village can be an awkward place for wheelchair access). There are numerous grottos, alcoves, follies, viewing points over the estuary, (which has quicksands and proves dangerous at high tides). Shops, cafes, ice cream parlours and bars abound.  Several high powered sports cars were on display and driving round the village too.

Classy cars

There are several woodland trails round the village, which I hope to cover as and when I go back, as I certainly hope to.  Highlights include seeing the giant Buddha statue, (a prop used and abandoned near Portmeirion after filming the Ingrid Bergman movie, The Inn Of The Sixth Happiness);

The Inn Of The 6th Happiness Buddha

the concrete boat, Amis Reunis (Friends Reunited) built onto the coastal cliff overlooking the water in full sized fishing boat shape, with added masts, rigging, etc, and seeing numerous locations and angles associated with the TV series. 

Concrete Boat

Patrick McGoohan is commemorated with busts and plaques, as is Sir Clough-William Ellis. Others who visited the village have included Noel Coward, Ingrid Bergman, Gregory Peck, Brian Epstein, George Harrison, Paul McCartney (though not the other two Beatles).

Patrick McGoohan bust

Jools Holland. Iron Maiden and XTC have shot homaging videos to The Prisoner in the village (Village), or using footage of the Village and the TV series. 

Quicksand warning sign

The blazing heat was rough on my visit, though my admission fee was double reduced for getting both a coach party discount and my first official over 60’s price reduction too.  I was beginning to worry if my plastic stoma bag might melt on me but that was unlikely and it behaved itself well. 

It was so hot that the iron handrails on some winding stairways were superheated and near impossible to get hold of or touch.  I was quite envious of hotel residential guests who got to use the pool. 

Hotel pool

The main hotel is a beautiful Edwardian looking villa, serving bottled ales with a Prisoner theme. As the show gave characters numbers rather than names the beers are Portmeirion 1, 2, 6 and 12. (McGoohan’s doppelganger in The Schizoid Man episode of the show). I had the 6 (Stout numbered after McGoohan;s character) which was excellent. Bought the others in take-away bottles for consumption at home. 

Prisoner theme beer, glass and bottle

The big mystery after my visit is why Number 6 was so obsessed with escaping as the village is delightful. I’d be happy to declare why I resigned as a spy, accept my number, sell out my country to dubious organizations, and settle down to play chess and enjoy the ambience here. 

Portmeirion

Thanks to Walton’s Coaches, the passengers and the people I met in Portmeirion.   As I hope to return, I’ll end with the obvious quotation from many episodes, ‘Be seeing you.’ 

Be Seeing You

Youtubes 

XTC – The Man Who Sailed Around His Soul https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x3qbUy6e11Q 

Iron Maiden – The Prisoner https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SyazYfSW2Yk 

All photos taken by me.

Arthur Chappell

Day Trip To Bakewell Derbyshire

Day Trip To Bakewell Derbyshire 

On Sunday 21st November 2021 Less than a week after returning from a week long stay in Buxton in the White Peaks region of Derbyshire I went on a day trip coach excursion to neighbouring village, Bakewell, noted for its tarts and puddings., (though I hadn’t heard of the latter until now). 

The Walton’s coach trip was pleasant, lasting about two hours and as the driver predicted we would get to Bakewell at about 11.40 am, but as we arrived it was obvious how crowded the village was, as traffic slowed to a crawl and it took forty minutes to reach the coach park by the animal pens (currently empty) used in farmer’s markets. 

Farmer’s Market Paddocks, Bakewell, Derbyshire – Taken by me

The footpaths and pavements were often as gridocked as the roads as Christmas markets drew in scores of tourists. Many stalls and shops had huge queues.  I planned to visit each of the village’s eight bars, having a half in each in turn but three were filled to capacity and couldn’t admit any more customers.  The Rutland Hotel was one I missed out on, well known after featuring in an episode of The Hotel Inspector reality TV shows. There is no sign as such for the hotel – pub but its Tuscan portico, designed in the Georgian era by White Watson, is quite striking.  The famous pudding was apparently accidentally invented here.

The Rutland Hotel Portico – Bakewell, Derbyshire – Taken by me

My favourite bar was the most recently opened, the Joiner’s Arms micro bar, with very comfy seating, dog friendly ambiance and a great selection of ales. 

The Joiners Arms pub sign – Bakewell, Derbyshire – Taken by me

The Queen’s Arms was crowded but efficiently run, but served its ale only in plastic glasses. 

The Queen’s Arms pub sign Bakewell, Derbyshire – Taken by me

The Peacock staff were a little standoffish,  only telling me there were no seats after they had served me. Fortunately their beer garden had a few seats left, though it was freezing as the temperature dropped. 

I bought some of the famous Bakewell pudding, which is delicious, lacking the icing that comes with the tarts, it is a very nice mildly syrupy pastry. 

There were lots of street entertainers around including Morris Dancers. I spotted Disney characters trying to get back in their cars. The Mickey Mouse kept banging his head on the edge of the door of his little car as he didn’t want to break out of character with kids watching him struggling to get in.  Sadly it wasn’t a Mini or there would have been obvious room for potentially rude Minnie Mouse jokes.  

Funnier was the lady dressed as Elsa from Frozen chasing after her little dog that had run off from her. Someone yelled ‘Let It Go, Elsa’ and burst into a few lines from the Let It Go song.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=moSFlvxnbgk 

The coach set off about 4.30pm and got me home to Preston for about 6.45pm. 

Arthur Chappell