AFA - Cymru (Wales) #3 Portmeirion

The absolute surprise of Wales was this spectacular Italian-style city. It was designed and built by one guy, Sir Clough Williams-Ellis, between 1925 and 1975 to look like an Italian coastal city, some say Portofino. For those of you old enough to remember the classic British TV series "The Prisoner", it was filmed here. (Portmeirion was 'The Village' - although it was black & white, so hard to tell) As you can see from the pix, it is stylish, colorful, very small, and completely charming. As you can see by the sign below, at the time it was built they discouraged tourists in order to maintain their quaint charm. In the TV show, they never gave Portmeirion credit until the last show so that crowds wouldn't flock to see the town. For us, this was the highlight of Wales. I realized one thing you don't appreciate from the pictures is the flowers - they were everywhere and looked great.
It is near the coast but not actually on the ocean, and as you can see in the last picture ( a little) when the tide goes out there is no water, just sand.