Touring with the Kinates – St. Andrews and South Queensferry

Because the Old Course is (usually) closed on Sundays and open for the public to walk, we again hired a car and headed to St. Andrews.  Unfortunately we didn’t get another Audi but we did get a KIA SUV which gave us all a bit more room.  Luther still felt the need to sit on my lap for most of the trip.

As you drive through Fife you see field after field of these beautiful yellow flowers.  I had a suspicion that they were rapeseed fields but didn’t get than confirmed until later.  Rapeseed oil is sold at most grocery stores in Edinburgh and can be used the same way that you would use olive oil.  However, after the I got back to work I found out that most Scots aren’t fans of the rapeseed fields because of the smell.  I found it quite pleasant so I’m not sure what they’re talking about.  As we were driving around Aunt Benja was attempting to get iPhone pictures from the car window but that’s not always easy to get good ones.  Luckily we found a small side road right next to a field and were able to make an extra loop in a roundabout to make a small detour.  The yellow fields just add an amazing contrast to the rest of the green landscape.

This time around I wanted to make sure that we got to walk around the St. Andrews Cathedral and the St. Andrews Castle so we found a parking spot and headed straight for the cathedral.  When mom & Steve were in we were too late and were only able to take pictures from outside the gates.  I could tell it was beautiful then and it was even better up close.  The building that used to stand there must have been really impressive.  We had a lot of fun just walking around and looking at all of the headstones and markers.  Aunt Benja found one that simply said “She did what she could”.  It quickly became our motto for the week. 

There is a small area with 4 in ground tombs.  Of course Aunt Benja and I decided to crawl in and lie down.

After a picnic lunch, we put Luther in the car and headed over to the castle.  Even though it’s a ruin, he’s not allowed in because you have to walk through a display in the visitors centre to get to the castle.  He was probably ready for a nap though.  St. Andrews is one of the smaller castles we’ve visited.  It was pretty and had great views, but I was a bit underwhelmed.  Until we found the tunnels.  Then I was happy.

From the castle, we stopped off at the car to get Luther and headed into the town centre for a few souvenirs before heading to the Old Course.  We passed University of St. Andrews on our way so of course we stopped in to take a look.

As I said earlier – the Old Course is closed on Sundays but a ladies tournament was taking place that particular day.  We were still able to walk the course but we have to be careful of flying golf balls.  Since the tournament limited where we could go a bit, we made sure to take Uncle Chris’ picture on the bridge and then headed over to the beach.  We happened to hit the beach when the tide was at its lowest so the beach looked HUGE.  But Luther had lots of fun running around like a crazy man.

Before heading back to Edinburgh, we stopped off for dinner at a little pub and then opted to drive the Fife Coastal route home.  The drive was quite pretty.  As we were coming into Edinburgh at 9:30 the sun was starting to set.  We decided to make one last stop in South Queensferry at the Forth Bridge.  I’m really glad we did because the sunset was beautiful and the bridge was lit up really nicely.  And I got my first ice cream of the summer!  Up until then I’d had a hard time imagining ever being warm enough to make me want ice cream in Scotland but it was fantastic.

After the sun was set, we headed back home for the night before we left for our west coast/island adventure the next day.

Love you & miss you,

Aubs, Luke & Luther