I have to admit to being a Pier aficionado.

I’m a card-carrying member of Bangor Pier and spend quite some considerable time there. It’s my go-to place after a morning’s work to unwind, contemplate, maybe have a coffee or exceptionally an ice cream.

As piers go, it isn’t one of the most spectacular. It spans half-way to Anglesey, has spectacular views of the Menai, to the mountains of Snowdonia, and all the way up to the Great Orme and Llandudno. On a good day the views are absolutely spectacular. On a bad weather day, you are lucky to see beyond the beak of.a seagull.

But that’s also OK. There’s a cosy little cafe at the far end to shelter in if needs be. My golden advice would be, not to order a cappuccino or any drink with a large amount of froth on top. If you do, exit the cafe backwards. From experience, I can tell you the wind will throw the froth slap bang in your face. Not a cool look.

It was probably my first experience of piers. Barry island was my first seaside adventure but it has no pier. Later, Weston-super-Mare became a favourite. But Bangor made the biggest impression. As a treat we’d be given a banana, strawberry or chocolate milkshake - there were no other flavours when I was growing up. Just like there were no mobile phones, internet, endless TV channels and any hot drinks beyond tea, coffee or cocoa - in one of the pavilions. There’s a photo of me somewhere tucking into a milkshake which must have been bigger than my head which I must dig out.

Bangor Pier is also moderately peaceful.

In contrast, there is Llandudno Pier. It’s Grade II listed and at 2295 feet is the longest pier in Wales and the fifth longest in the UK (behind Southend, Southport, Ryde and Hythe). It’s actually a seafront on a pier with all the usual attractions - fun fair, big wheel, candy floss, an amusement arcade, several cafes, even more food and drink stalls selling hot dogs, doughnuts, and these days churros and craft gins.

And it was here I found myself on the last sunny Saturday of the school holidays. I should say I had no intention to go there and had travelled to Llandudno early with some errands to run. But I was drawn to it by the bright lights and the lure of the floss.

And like a child following the Pied Piper I was drawn along the pier to the very end and back again, on a tide of scantily dressed mass of anxious humanity, desperately seeking seaside happiness. There were occasional log jams, but they always freed up and the tide was off again.

Eventually, you are spat out from the pier with a sense of relief. Almost as though you had been holding your breath for ever so slightly too long.

An experience. But I think I prefer Bangor.

R