Fife and St. Andrews

 An early start and trek up to Castlehill (the other end of the Royal Mile) for our day trip out to St. Andrews and nearby fishing villages, in the East Neuk of Fife.

Already at 8:00 am, we saw some eager Royal-watchers headed with bouquets of flowers toward Canongate church. Wonder if Prince Harry went with her to church…. Doesn’t look like it from this news ad: http://entertainment.stv.tv/showbiz/261393-the-queen-visits-canongate-kirk-ahead-of-zara-phillips-wedding/

First stop on the tour was South Queensferry, not far from Edinburgh. There are two bridges at South Queensferry. Both took 7 years to build.  The first was built in 1890, at a cost of 3 million pounds. The second in 1964, at a cost of 21 million pounds.

Very narrow, windy streets through this little town.

We also stopped at Aberdour Castle, the oldest stone built castle still standing (somewhat) in Scotland. Owned by William the Earl of Morton.

Next stop was the fishing village of Anstruther. Reportedly home to the best Fish and Chips in Scotland, however we weren’t stopping there for lunch. (Boo.)  We did get a coffee and stroll around the town. The tide was out, so the photos of the beach we took where we walked are very different than those on the city’s website.

Kevin snuck a picture of me with my coffee, looking disheveled from the bus trip….

He also took a picture of a sign in the coffee shop restroom, he found amusing.

Some golfballs in the window of an antique/collectibles shop:

A walk around the side streets, away from the shore, and some of the well-kept buildings.

 Finally, we arrived in St. Andrews and of course, the Old Course at St. Andrews. Being Sunday, there was no golf, as is the tradition (unless there is a tournament). For our golfing friends, we took some photos. You can take photos on the 18th green, so this is the flag for the 18th hole. 

 A view down the course from the 18th hole:

The Clubhouse. What a dump.... :)

 Old St. Andrews Golf Shop:

The other main attraction in St. Andrews is the University, where of course Prince William and Kate Middleton went to school. St. Andrews is the oldest university in Scotland, founded 1413. (Teaching began in 1410.) Kevin and I walked around the campus and took some photos. Imagine going to school on a campus right next to the North Sea.... Town population 17,000. Campus 9,000.

Again, another dump of a campus.... those Scots.

 Main building

From the back courtyard, St. Salvator's tower is just at the end of this building on the right (cut off):

The crest of the holy hand-grenade....

 One of the residence buildings, St. Salvator's Hall:

 The courtyard, with the view of the North Sea across the street:

Went across the street to St. Andrew's Castle ruins, and the North Sea. 

Kevin and I dipped our feet in the North Sea:

 The beach behind the castle:

 View of the castle wall from the shore:

People were my kind of height... a doorway to a house in town:

On our walk about town, we encountered a pristine Triumph TR6. Took this for Dad and Chris.

The owner walked up as we were taking a picture and we spoke with him briefly. I explained there were British car lovers in my family. He got this car, a 1974, from Norfolk, Virginia 24 years ago. They had it brought over and switched the driving gear back over to the right. In 24 years, it has only 16000 miles on it. They drive it only on good days and its not had any Canadian winters.

After that, it was back to Edinburgh for packing up and preparing to go back to Glasgow and the flight home. We had our last dinner at a Mexican place (quite an array of international fare this trip - everything but Scottish food). The popped arrangements of Bon Jovi tunes, sung by a mellow female voice and accompanied by Jethro-Tull sound flute obligatos, was a fun and surreal way to end our trip. 

We'll definitely go back for a real vacation some time, so we can see all Scotland has to offer. All in all, it was a successful library trip, with some nice touristing here and there. Certainly didn't take for granted the opportunity to walk around and study in a place with such history. 

Hope you've enjoyed the blog. 

Terry's Golf Ball - for TP

We bought a golf ball from the Old Course at St. Andrews for our avid golf fan friend, Terry Paynter.
We took it on a tour around St. Andrews. Here are pics for Terry of his golf ball:
First, at the St. Andrews Castle wall:

Next, at the 18th hole - looks like it will be a birdie!

And, from farther away:

Thanks Terry, for taking such good care of our girls!!! Woof!

Edinburgh Castle and Holyrood

Saturday we had a well-deserved sleep in, and enjoyed some sunshine and coffee looking out the window of the flat on to High St. No parades this morning….

Today we toured Edinburgh Castle – was fun to see the inside after many days of seeing the outside walls. The Royal Scottish Regiment was on guard and Kevin enjoyed seeing a changing of the guard while we were there.  Our tour guide, “a proud Fifer!” (meaning, she was from the kingdom of Fife, not an annoying piccolo player) brought the history alive, and was well worth tagging along with the guided tour. Would be neat to see the Military Tattoo show there, which happens from mid-July through August. They were setting up the bleachers this week.

Here are some photos of the Edinburgh Castle trip.

This is now a war memorial inside. If you look by the entrance you can see the two guard posts. 

 Building where the Royal Jewels are held:

This is one of two "hammer-beam" ceilings still standing. The other is in Stirling Castle. This one is reportedly in the best condition. Built 1511, not a single nail or screw holding it together. 

Photo from the Great Hall:

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Some views from the top. This is looking out onto New Town:

 Dog cemetary:

 View from the trip back down. The windowed building is St. Margaret's Chapel, the oldest building in the Castle compound. Built 12th century.

While in Edinburgh, we also went down toward Holyrood Palace and gardens. As I mentioned before, the Queen was in town for the Opening of Scottish Parliament, so the grounds were not open to the public. You could however, get a good view from walking by. There was a dinner party of some kind going on, when we strolled by. We think we saw Prince Harry out front of the palace smoking a cigarette. Guess Harry had to hang out with ”Grandmama” all weekend, with his usual playmate brother touring the Colonies. (What would you call the Queen, if she were your grandmother?)

Here are a couple pics of the Scottish Parliament building, across the street from Holyrood Palace. An interesting design - constructed between 1999 and 2004.  Building design was by Enric Miralles, who died before it was finished in 2004.

Holyrood Palace: Stuck the camera through the iron gates.

 Is that Harry in the doorway? (He had red hair, sure looked like him, but we were pretty far away)

The Queen's "backyard" -- some tents were up - clearly an event going on.

Next to Holyrood Palace are the Salisbury Crags, and volcanic rock outcrops that make spectacular viewing and tough climbing. This was at the end of our day, so we didn’t trek all the way up to Arthur’s Seat, as Kevin did a few years ago when he was here last. Some good views of the city all the same.

 View from the Craigs - I think this is toward Leith:

 One of the trails up to Arthur's Seat:

On our way up to Edinburgh Castle in the late morning, signs had been posted around Canongate Church (see the last blog) indicating parking would be blocked off. We think the Queen is going to church at Canongate on Sunday morning. We had booked a tour out to Fife tomorrow that left at 9am, so we couldn’t stick around to see the action. Looks like it was a zoo.... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9R9cQKrZEaY Our flat was right beside the Canongate church. 

Kevin also finalized his Scotch purchases for the trip home. He was looking for two bottles that aren’t available Canada, to have something fun to share. He had purchased some mini-bottles for tasting, based on the recommendation of a whisky shop owner, of four small distillers for which the local demand is so great, there is no stock available for export. As well, one night this past week, we visited the “Rabbie Burns Whisky Bar” (sic), and went down to the basement bar where they advertised over 50 scotches available. The local bartender, who has likely not been fully sober since he was a teenager, gave him a “tour of Scotland” with many free samples of Scotch, and pounced on the opportunity to give a good Scotch education and talk Scotch with Kevin. Needless to say, he had a wonderful time. With all the sampling, he came up with two bottles to buy and bring home. (We thought that was our limit.) A bottle of Ben Riach 16 and Springbank Hazelburn. 

Kevin was disappointed to see on the Customs card at the airport, that we could have brought two more. Luckily, we were through the duty free by that time….

Tomorrow, a trip to Fife and St. Andrews