This was really a day off but I still walked six miles to Portmeirion and back. I was ready to do absolutely nothing apart from hanging around the hostel where Lawrence of Arabia began his life, reading the papers and watching TV. By midday I had to do something and not waste the opportunities that exist around here.
The two main things are the Ffestiniog Railway and Portmeirion village. I walked down to Portmadog and bought a first class ticket for tomorrow morning on the railway, then walked across the causeway and round the point to Portmeirion. What a place! How do you describe it - a folly, a model village, a hotch potch? Whatever, it is impossible for the place not to make an impression, the buildings, the position and the whole bizarre idea.
The tide was well out and the weather on edge. I had to leave to get back for Last Choir Standing. It was four miles back, the first bit of which was a lift from a nice Frenchman. Then the heavens opened and I had no alternative but to walk and get soaked. I just made it. It has been a great day of sport and music on TV and now I have just been told that it was 120 years ago today that Lawrence was born in this very house. The football season has started.
