A Winter Wander at the Seaside

We always enjoy walking by the sea and wandering along promenades and piers. The North Wales coast gives plenty of opportunities to do this. In the middle of February we drove north and then west for a couple of hours to the seaside town of Llandudno, a place we visit often.

We began our day at the seaside by wandering along the promenade assisted by a strong wind making our way to the pier. The two photos below illustrate just how dark a day it was.

Typical of seaside towns created in Edwardian times, Llandudno has a front created out of huge hotels built in response to the surge in interest in seaside holidays made possible by the improved transport systems. These hotels are all impressive at the front to impress but behind this frontage they are really badly built.

The promenade was across the road from the hotels so we just saw the tidy neat fronts. The wooden sculpture piece of the White Rabbit has been there for as long as we can remember. He looks quite a character!

Towards the end of the prom as we reached the entrance of the pier we found these giant red poppies left in that position after Remembrance Day.

We then entered the pier and were greeted by the usual sweet sickly aromas of doughnuts being cooked and candy floss being spun. Sales booths and entertainments sit along both sides of the pier at this end. Everything for sale here is bright and mostly plastic. Music played from most booths so we had to listen to different songs all around us.

The huge building alongside the beginning is the Grand Hotel, still being used despite looking in need of some tlc in places. Iron beams decorated with fussy patterns form the structures from the original pier entrance.

Once beyond the bright noisy sales booths and the children’s rides the pier became quieter with wooden benches lined up along each side, many dedicated to people who loved the pier. The cast iron “fences” along the sides were painted in white and a rich blue, discoloured in places by rust.

The annual upkeep of the pier must cost a fortune with the constant repainting of the woodwork and metalwork and sometimes having to repair the wooden boards of walkways as well as the main iron framework.