I make my way to
Wollaston, where at 07.35am the
National Express West Midlands Service 276 bus pulls up and I board and take a seat, sending Mr
UKBuses the normal text to tell him that we are on our way. The bus goes through
Norton, where Mr UKBuses duly boards and then we make our way into Stourbridge, alighting at
Stourbridge Interchange and taking a short walk down to the coach shelter opposite Stourbridge Tip. We wait about ten minutes wondering if we were told the right time, our worry lessens when another couple turn up and "Herbie" the
Greenline minicoach turns up and we board, luckily we only have a couple of pick ups in Lye and Halesowen to do before we make our way to Dudley. We arrive in Dudley and pull up outside of the entrance to
Dudley Zoo, we have a few minutes to wait before our main coach pulls up, so I get off and have some "fresh air" whilst waiting. "Jan" turns up and Mr UKBuses gets off "Herbie" and we make our way to the main coach with our regular driver, Mike sorting out the seats. As we are waiting the rain starts to pour down on us and we cannot yet board the coach due to other passengers blocking the aisle, so we get slightly damp, but we find out we have the same seats as last week and get a drivers view of the journey to and from Portmeirion.
We make our way towards Wolverhampton, me slightly damp as my bottle of pop for the journey decides to explode over me as I open it and get onto the
M6 Motorway, just for a short while before we join the
M54 Motorway. We are on the coach for less than an hour, where Mike informs us that we are going to have a quick convenience stop at Telford Services as some of the passengers have been on the coach far longer than those who joined at Dudley. We duly pull into
Welcome Break Telford Service Station where we have time to make use of the facilities and also a quick breath of "fresh air" before boarding again and making our way back out onto the M54 motorway. We then head onto the A5 and head towards Wrexham, where we have a longer stop at
Moreton Park Garden Centre,
see picture top left, where we decide to have some breakfast in the restaurant. Mr UKBuses is a number (Number 11 to be exact) after ordering his traditional breakfast (no egg or beans, but mushrooms and black pudding as a replacement), I order mine (I am Number 7), asking for no egg and black pudding as a replacement. After about 10 minutes our breakfasts arrive,
see picture right, Mr UKBuses is first and without his beans and egg, a lot of plate can be seen. Mine then arrives, with egg on, which I duly put to one side, but I also get my extra black pudding as well, with my plate looking fuller than Mr UKBuses. Food eaten, we have a quick look around the garden centre and decide to have another pit stop, with Mr UKBuses getting confused as he nearly goes into the ladies. We make our way back to the coach with some "fresh air" had along the way back to the coach and Mike returns after having his breakfast and we duly board our coach "Jan" again and take our seats to get us to Portmeirion.
We make our way from Moreton Park and Mike takes us on a scenic route as we bypass Oswestry and Chirk and go through Llangollen, spotting the canal and steam railway as we pass through. We then pass through Corwen and Bethel before driving past the glorious looking
Bala lake. We are not too far from our destination now, but we get stuck behind a "
Sunday Driver", which adds time to our journey as we cannot get past the driver who doesn't know what an accelerator is for. The driver finally pulls off and we pick up speed again and after passing signs for Ffestiniog, we only have to go through the little village of
Minffordd and I keep an eye out for the steam railway station at Minffordd as about twenty years ago I stayed in the Ffestiniog railway hostel when I was in the Venture Scouts, I do spot it and memories come flooding back, right opposite, we turn down a road which is the entrance to
Portmeirion, if only I had known that all them years ago, I could have made a visit then. We go down a small road and we are at the entrance to "The Village", Mike gives a toot on his horn and the gates are open so that we are allowed into the coach park, arriving just before 1.30pm. Mike pulls up and as we alight another coach drivers rudely asks Mike to move as he wants to leave, why he couldn't have waited a few minutes, Mike would have dropped off all the passengers and would have got out of his way. "Fresh air" is had before we make our way to the village,
see picture left. A trip to Porthmadog is abandoned as we would have had to walk about a mile and a half to the nearest bus stop.
We make our way down towards "
The Village", so far so good, there are no big white balloons following me around, Mr UKBuses refers to them as "
Rovers", just a person who looks like Stan Ogden with a camera clicking away behind me is the only thing following me around. We have a walk around "The Village" and with Mr UKBuses clicking away, I move further into "The Village". A woman is taking a picture behind Mr UKBuses and as he hears the camera click, he turns around and tells her to "P*** Off!", I think he may have been a bit paranoid about his bald spot. We carry on around the main part of
Portmeirion, where we arrive at The Town Hall and we decide to rest our legs for a bit,
see picture right. We make our way inside, and Mr UKBuses leaves me at the bar whilst he goes to find a table
(good excuse again!) and a pint of cider and lager is ordered. I wake up once the barmaid gives me the change, with the round coming to a staggering £8.55, with Mr UKBuses pint being the more expensive at £4.75 a pint. I take my seat and drink my pint slowly to ensure I get the best out of it and my monies worth. There are a few drops left and I make sure that the glass is left very dry and we make our way back into "The Village".
After visiting the toilet
(this building will be used a lot today), we make our way down to the hotel and Mr UKBuses plays about on the Stone boat located next to it. With Mr UKBuses back ashore, I feel ill when Mr UKBuses decides to go on a walk through the woods
(yes, I did say a walk!), so we make our way past the lighthouse and onto the forest trail. Luckily, for Mr UKBuses, about three-quarters of the way around there is a bench available which Mr UKBuses decides to have a seat for about ten minutes to recover, which also meant I could get some "fresh air", before making our way back into "The Village". We have another quick look around and we arrive just in time for The Forest Train, we climb aboard and after everybody is on, we set off taking us around a different part of the forest situated in the grounds. We could have walked the route about three times as the train was quite slow, we do eventually get back into "The Village" and alight by The Town Hall. Mr UKBuses spots the ice cream shop, so we head in and decide to have a single scoop cone, with Mr UKBuses opting for Strawberry and myself Cranberrie Cream flavour. Mr UKBuses gets his first and heads out of the shop and then I get mine, but it looks as if I have had an extra scoop judging by the difference in size. I may have had more, but seeing as my ice cream was soft to begin with, it doesn't take long before it starts running all down my hands and by the time I've finished, my hands are entirely covered in ice cream. Luckily for me, we are right by the toilets, so another visit is made to give them a wash.
We have a further look around "The Village" and then we head to "Number 6" house, which is now home to
The Prisoner gift shop. Mr UKBuses wants to get a mouse mat, but after looking around the shop a couple of times and enquiring, he is out of luck and comes away from the shop empty handed. We have a bit of time left and decide to have a look around the other shops just in case there are any floating around in the other shops. We decide to take another break and it is back to The Town Hall where we decide to have a seat outside and Mr UKBuses does go to the bar and pays the same amount. After drinks we decide to make our way back to the coach a bit early just in case we can leave early, we make our way via the
pottery shop,
see picture left, just in case there is an elusive mouse mat hanging around in there. Unfortunatley for Mr UKBuses there isn't so we board the coach after I have had some "fresh air" and with the coach two-thirds full, we get comfortable and wait for the stragglers. At least we haven't been chased around by a "Rover", but we did get followed by a couple off our coach a few times today, were they "Rovers" in disguise? The last few stragglers board and we leave Portmeirion twenty minutes before planned departure. We escape "The Village" and make our way down to Minffordd, where I say goodbye to my once hostel from years ago and we hit the road.
A few miles into the journey and it looks as if we have come across the same driver as we did this morning, in a different car, as we are stuck behind him for quite a while and he seems to be doing only half of the speed limit. He eventually turns off with a loud cheer from everyone in the coach as he turns off. We eventually get close to our comfort break and have ten minutes in
Welshpool, where luckily the toilets are still open, time for some "fresh air" before we set off along the rabbit run and back into
Dudley, where we say goodbye to Mike and swap onto "Herbie" again which takes us straight back into Stourbridge, arriving at 9.04pm, which gives us a minute to run from the drop off point to Stourbridge Interchange, where luckily, our National Express West Midlands Service 276 is still on the stand. We board and as we reach Norton, its time to say goodbye to Mr UKBuses and upon arriving in Wollaston a quick nightcap is had at
Graham's Place and
The Unicorn before heading back home for a well deserved rest.
