Driving continues to be an adventure. Finding the church in the Newport city introduced us to roundabouts and locations when the GPS says you are there, you can see the church, but how do you get to the parking lot? We found it though in the nick of time. It is the first Sunday of the month, so we were fasting. The ward there was small, but very nice. The chapel was interesting as it only had chairs, not pews. Looking at it, you would have thought it would have had pews. Nice testimonies were borne. But we slipped out about 10 minutes early to get back to our hotel and get checked out since check out time was at 11 AM.
After changing our clothes and loading the car, we headed to our first stop... Castle Coch. This was a medieval castle owned by Gilbert d'Clare...the red headed noble man of Norman descent. That's about as much history as you'll every get out of me...sorry Brent! It was a pretty cool castle...not big...but interesting. We had to pay to get in but they did give us head sets that allowed us to take an audio tour. That lasted about an hour or so. A lot of the locals just come up to the grounds to picnic with their families. And in the shade, it was nice and cool even though these regions are having some of the hottest temperatures they have had in a long time.
Our next stop was St. Fagan's, the National Outdoor Welsh museum. Upon arriving there, we knew we were in trouble after being routed into a large field designated to be overflow parking. It was sunny and hot. Although the walk was about a 5 minute walk to the entrance, it seemed forever. That was just the beginning. St. Fagan's is a large park like setting with ponds, a castle and lots of buildings that demonstrate what life was like in early welsh times. We thought we might see docents in period costume...but instead we saw vendor tents, ice cream trailers and so on that housed live people doing things. The grounds was beautiful...don't get me wrong. But Denise's Apple Watch step counter got so hot it blistered her arm due to the millions of steps she took. And with it being hot, humid and lots of steps, her personality grew even more and more loving. We have to go back! This place would again be nice for a picnic with your family. They did have a really cool adventure course for kids who would strap into climbing stuff and then navigate a nice ropes course. It was pretty high and pretty long.
We left St. Fagan's and headed to Swansea about 50 minutes up the road. This is a seaport town that Denise's Aunt loved when serving a mission here. We ended up in a fast food seafood joint. It was pretty good. It was right across the street from their big rugby and futbol stadium. I had a large piece of cod with a mountain of 'chips' (French fries). No wonder the welsh seem like a tread mill in each home might be a good thing!
Our next stop was our inn for the night. But getting there was an amazing adventure. It started at the fish house. The GPS wanted me to turn left. But there was a barrier in the road that would not allow that. So turned right. The GPS then re-routed us back to the same place...only this time, in my frustration I turned into the wrong lane and almost went nose to nose with another car. They guy just stared at me a bit, waited for me to wave and then waved back. We then went on our way. This time I did not listen to the GPS and tried to go to an intersection where I could do a U-turn. I got there. But in my excitement, I killed the car as I began to make the turn. And starting the car with these wireless key fobs with foot on the brake...well...I had to come to a complete stop to get the darn thing to start. The people behind me must have thought I was nuts. The next phase of the driving adventure took us to the 'town' where the inn is supposed to be...Tenby. But no, we get into Tenby and the address where the inn is supposed to be was not right. Well, we did not understand it. Turns out it was a few miles down some road in a village called Penally. However, we must have missed the main road to get to Penally because you should have seen our drive over hill and Dale, small streams and valleys. It was amazing and at one point, my mirrors were hitting brush on both sides...so narrow was the road. This could not be right. So as we came off this hill into some homes, we saw a guy and we stopped him to ask if he had heard of the New Overlander Inn. He laughed and said, it is right here! Take a quick left, quick right and another quick right and it is right there. And sure enough it was.
The inn host was wonderful getting us her 'best' room at the back of the house. The only problem is that if I stick my arm out the back window, the train will snap it off....that's how close we are to train tracks. Fortunately it comes once an hour or even less and stops around 10:30 PM. So we should be fine. Booking .com happened to forget that bit of trivia! But it is beautiful here. Denise and I took the 10 minute walk past a golf course and down to the ocean beach. It was still warm but getting cooler as we got closer to the sea. Now I'm getting to the part of the vacation I'll enjoy the most....ocean water!
Tomorrow's another day...our last in Wales! Adios ancestors! :-)
Pictures....
Happy church goers....nice little ward. People just doing their best to live the teachings taught to them by their Savior....
The next set of pictures are inside Castel Coch...it was pretty ornate as some guy came in and really restored the place a few moons back...
I forget to mention that part of the million Apple Watch steps today were stair stepper exercises. I can't tell you how many stairs we climbed but enough sweat was streaming down my back at one point.
Nic stained glass windows that once adorned a chapel in the castle...
The castle was circular and this is looking across the courtyard from the 2nd floor up...
Me in the dungeon trying to phone home for help....
The next set of pictures are at St. Fagan's. They called the building behind Denise 'St. Fagan's' castle. But actually, the castle is long gone and this was a manor house where the noble families came for the summer.
An inside room in the manor. Notice the 'horn' thing in the back. That is a large phonograph. This must have been the music room with a number of instruments there.
This is just a part of the beautiful grounds here....
This is the cider press exhibition. One can only assume the guy who was supposed to be demonstrating how to press apples into cider got fired or he walked out...as no one was there demonstrating. Maybe he made bad juice or something!
This is the 21st century exhibition of how to take your money with many little booths of things. Did they do that in medieval times? The probably did...actually they did some nice things for kids teaching them how to turn wood, to do pottery and stuff.
The highlight of the day...trust me. It tasted so good. Great way to break a fast...
The town square...nice little shops.
Some of the paths along the way...
This is one of the wide roads we found trying to locate our BNB! It was an actual miracle we stumbled on to this place and I truly mean that.
My happy place...the sea! Cool breezes, cool sand and cool ocean water. Nothing better...especially when doing this with my wife!
There she is...
There he is...
Our friend for a night I guess. No one said our room was literally 20 feet from a train track!
Our inn for the night...the New Overlander Inn. It is quite nice so far. Just a bit hot.
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