Want to go back in time? …
Go to Llandudno! We had never even been there before, but were wanting a few nice days at the beach with our children after camping in a field for 2 weeks at Keswick. So it had to be somewhere not too far off the route between Keswick and London.
Llandudno seemed not too far along the North Wales coast but nicer than Prestatyn.After the recently blogged about Travelodge experience – a B and B it was to be, and after a few furtive hours online search in Java Coffee, I found a B and B that could fit us all in for a reasonable price.
We couldn’t really believe it – it was like being in a scene from Heartbeat, Noddy, and Balamory all rolled into one!
Our B and B room, looked over the curving bay, edged with an immaculate sweep of pastel Georgion buildings, (not even one ugly tower block or 1960s effort in the view at all! – not one!) and a wide red tarmac promenade, punctuated nicely with an elegant column at one end.
On the first day, you walk up the street to where the cute little coloured cable car cabins swing above a park onwards up The Great Orme, (a small mountain rock peninsula place creating one end of the curve of the bay), unfortunately quite expensive for the 7 of us but still nice to look at! You reinvigorate the children with promises of an extra £2 each to spend in the gift shop at the top of the mountain, and walk up the waymarked Summit Trail, past the Ski Slope – yes the Ski Slope! My husband says the British Ski Championships are held there – but I cannot believe that – but like I said it’s all a bit like a fairytale! There is a tobaggan run too. On past a herd of wild white goats and you can then marvel at the smart trams passing each other as they journey also up to the Summit.
At the Summit, there is a play area and a small lively centre with bar, toilets, gift shop, cafe, and vintage photograph booth where your family can dress up and be photographed as a Wild West family – that sort of thing. And then there is also an exellent quality free, but not too onerous in size, Visitor Centre where you can find out about the stone age burial site, and wildlife etc. And then you can find your own fossils nearby, and walk back down to the town past the Ancient Mine – sort of Craggy Island Fair type publicity.
Anyway, we went on the beach for lunch, and in a small not crowded area, all just the right size the kids enjoyed pony rides; a traditional Punch and Judy show, and a walk down the pier -with lots of quaint little stalls on it and small rides – and nothing anywhere was garish or ugly or too commercial! I couldn’t believe it. Normally there is a huge massive Arcade, or fair, or Morrisons or just carpark on the seafront but there wasn’t any.
And there was also a toy train that runs through the town, and a 1960s brown and cream curved shape bus doing tours, and a bright red open topped bus. And from a jetty nearby there were jet boat rides, sightseeing tours, and fishing trips, all by just one operator so no lines of five different companies sandwich boards. But he sat in a red and white striped deck chair on the prom with a Megaphone and did ‘Lunchtime specials’ where the trips were £2 rather than £3.
And the shops in the town centre are only a few minutes away and they are nice too. On the second day the emergency services did a life boat demonstration on the sea, an a helicopter winched someone from the sea, to a watching crowd of about only 400, and the Red Arrows did a fly past! (On their way to Rhyll airshow actually but still!) And as we looked back on the evening sun lighting up the beach from our B and B window, the sound of singing drifting in through the window too as the Beach Mission team did Songs of Praise seemed to roll the credits on a perfect but strangely ‘make believe’ sort of a day.
And there’s no way to make fun of it being an old fashioned seaside resort because it was so lovely and so rare and precious, I’d given up hope of that sort of thing still existing. What I guess is the real romance and wonderland of what I’d read about in Museum Exhibitions as the magic of the old fashioned British Seaside Experience, but never quite experienced myself.
So if it really wasn’t a dream I had – go there in summer and see for yourself.
(But be quick because unfortunately, I just can’t see how it is going to be all financially viable for many more seasons.)
