Tintagel Castle

Took one day while at Newquay and went to Tintagel Castle, built in the 13th century. It's right on the coast with spectacular views of the Atlantic coast.

From Wikipedia: "The castle has a long association with legends related to King Arthur. This began in the 12th century when Geoffrey of Monmouth described Tintagel as the place of Arthur's conception in his fictionalized account of British history, the Historia Regum Britanniae. Geoffrey told the story that Arthur's father, King Uther Pendragon, was disguised by Merlin's sorcery to look like Gorlois, Duke of Cornwall, the husband of Igraine, Arthur's mother."


There was a cave down at the base. After that there was a lot of climbing to get to the top

Cool modern statue at the top. Happened to meet three young ladies from Provo at the top.

This is a view of a Church from the castle. We walked there as well since we love old churches.

Newquay

Stayed three nights in Newquay (pronounced new key). Turns out this is a beach resort with surfing, etc. We spent one afternoon at the beach but the water was too cold for us. Most use wet suits.

Saint Michael's Mount

Had a nice visit to Saint Michael's Mount. You can only walk to it when the tide is out.

On the road to Cornwall

The countryside is beautiful and most of SW England looks like this.

Driving is crazy stressful here. It's not just driving on the left but the narrow roads. This one has a 60 MPH speed limit.

Dorset

Stayed one night at a very nice B&B. Ate dinner here:

Took a short walk. Here is a 14th century church still in operation:

LDS Church at Eastbourne and Beachy Head

Left Bexhill and attended church at the Eastbourne Ward. Just a small ward with maybe 75 people there. The chapel was awesome. It used to be a Church of England building. Here are a few shots:

After church we ate a picnic lunch at Beachy Head. Spectacular cliffs. Surprisingly few handrails or warning signs.

Bexhill-on-Sea and Hastings

Stayed at a nice B&B in Bexhill. Cute little town on the English Channel. Took at short train ride to Hastings and spent the day there. Stumbled upon the ruins of Hastings Castle. Spectacular views from the top of the hill

Went inside this old Church of England church. There was a handbell group practicing a song and they were great.

 Had to see the Royal National Lifeboat Institute boat at Hastings.

Rye

Went to the small coastal town of Rye. Small narrow roads as you would expect.




















Lots of the older homes have names. This one was kind of funny.











In the main church, which was awesome, we actually could climb up narrow passageways, past the bells, up to the roof. There was a sign warning of loud noise at bell ringing time.

 Here's Gayle on the steeple overlooking Rye.

A view of the harbor and coast from the steeple.

A view of part of the town from the steeple.

London Temple

First stop after landing at the Gatwick Airport was to drive to the London temple which took about an hour of scary driving (getting used to driving on the left and shifting on the left and narrow roads). Took it easy that day and then did two endowment sessions at the temple the next day. That night watched the England world cup game at a pub within walking distance. The temple is out in the sticks by the way which was nice. The pub experience felt like the British version of watching a baseball game at Cheers. Here's a picture of the temple at night:

Best toilets ever (and a waterfall swim)

There is a great national park with the best toilets we have ever seen. When you open the door, this is what you see:

Here's a view from the commode:

These are advertised as "garden toilets" which is part of a project per the sign below.

Near the toilets and visitor center is a waterfall pool. Here is the trail to the pool.

Here's Marc in the pool. It was so nice we went there twice,

Finally, here is a little friend that was near the changing rooms:

Rugby

We (actually Marc) have been wanting to see a rugby match and could never get info on when the matches were happening.  So after the Ma tree, Tafatafa beach, and the grand opening of the Tiapapatia Art Center, we drove back to Apia to Apia Park to see if anything was happening.  Lucky for us we got there at the end of one match just before the next one.  The stadium is really nice.  It cost us 2 tala each to enter and 2 tala to park.  So cheap!  These matches are between villages.  A local man sat near us and introduced himself to us and we learned a bit more about the rules.  He was from the black team's village.
Here is a video of a scrum.

Beaches

We have been to a number of beaches around the island.   The beaches are on land owned by the villages and we pay a small fee to use them. It is their way of maintaining the beach.  Many beaches have been passed down through the generations.   These first two pictures are of Palolo Deep Marine Reserve.  The family who own this are members of our church.

Most of the beaches around the island are very rocky and have a lot of coral.  There is a huge reef surrounding most of the island.  The waves breaking in this picture are where the reef is.  We have snorkeled here but it isn't as good as other beaches.

This next beach a family in our ward told us about.  It is called Tafatafa beach and we went to Brenda's Bungalows.  Usually there are fales you can use for free at the beaches after you pay your fee, but this beach had large fales and it was an extra charge to use them.  We loved this beach so much we decided to go back again.  But today it was pouring down rain so we sadly couldn't go.  We were actually on the dirt road to the beach and had to turn around.  Disappointing!

And just for grins here's a fun picture of Gayle!