The Grove Adventures...: Cornwall and Dover

So onto the last part of my parent's visit to the UK! The last adventure outside of London was a long weekend down to Cornwall, with lots of sightseeing. On our way to Camelford, Cornwall we took a detour to Stonehenge. While you can see it from the road, it is definitely worth the stop to walk around. We were fortunate to have a another beautiful day, which always makes for better pictures. This was definitely another highlight from their visit.

We spent the next 2 days exploring Cornwall. We went to Tintagel Castle, one of the better ruined castles we've seen. We didn't have the best of weather, which made for some slippery walking around the area. Though the misty rain made it a bit more enchanting and added to the experience of King Arthur's birthplace and the caves of Merlin. After a couple hours and a delicious lunch of pasties and scones, we headed down to Newquay to explore the beach side town. Owen and I decided that we should take a little swim, so we changed out of our nice warm clothes and rain jackets and ran into the ocean! It wasn't nearly as cold as we expected and may have even felt nice if it was sunny out.

The next day, Owen and my dad went out for a round of golf in the morning. After, we went to Truro and wandered around town and the beautiful cathedral there. Then we went to another beach side town, St Ives. We wandered around town and the beach side, watched the tide come in, and enjoyed a nice afternoon. Overall the few days in Cornwall was very relaxing and we all enjoyed being by the ocean for a few days.

On the way back from Cornwall, we went to Bath for the afternoon. We spent a couple hours checking out the cathedral, the Roman bathhouse, the Royal Crescent, the Circus, and the Jane Austen center. The Roman bathhouse was the highlight, there is so much there and a lot that you are allowed to see, including some original springs and a place to sample the water (very mineral/iron tasting!). Bath was a beautiful town and we would recommend a visit there.

Finally, Monday of our long weekend was the last summer Bank Holiday, so we spent the day in Dover. We again had a beautiful, warm day, one of the last for the summer. We spent the first part of our day at Dover Castle, which was very busy and had special events happening for bank holiday, including a medieval knights fighting demonstration. Dover Castle was our favorite intact castle and they allow you to explore a lot more of the castle, including some underground passageways. After the castle, we went to the White Cliffs. These were even more spectacular in real life than I had imagined. Owen and I walked the 2 mile trail out to the end by the lighthouse. Unfortunately the stairs to the beach were closed due to a rock fall the week before, but there were plenty of beautiful vantage points along the way. If we had timed our day better, we would have taken a boat ride out to see the cliffs from the ocean side. Either way, the White Cliffs are one of my favorite places in the UK!

Well this wraps up the 3 weeks of my parents visit. As you can see we fit a lot in to 3 weeks and put a lot of miles (~2000) on the car driving all over the UK. It was a great time and we really enjoyed their visit, as I hope they did too. Thanks again for visiting and giving us a vacation! We never would have seen so much of the UK on our own. Again I have far too many pictures to post, but here are a few highlighting the different adventures from Cornwall and Dover. Enjoy!