Last modified on Wed 4 Aug 2021 01.31 EDT
Tall plane trees, hanging baskets and pavement cafes line pedestrianised Wind Street as it passes the ruined castle. I don’t know what I expected Swansea to look like but it wasn’t quite this.
My preconceptions were partly based on Dylan Thomas’s “ugly, lovely town” by the sea, “white-horsed and full of fishes”. After three hours on an air-conditioned Great Western Railways train from London, I’m striding past the 17th-century No Sign bar towards the city’s five-mile-long beach.
Any lingering doubts about Swansea as a holiday base are dispelled when I reach Morgan’s Hotelnear the marina. The Edwardian building, with its dome and grand staircase, was once the offices of the Port Authority. The decor nods to its maritime history with stained-glass boats, wave-form lamps and an anchor on the stairs; my high-ceilinged, wood-floored bedroom is cool and elegant.