Scotland 14 - St Andrews to North Berwick

Another day of packing up and heading out - emptying fridges, loading dishwashers, checking under beds for  toys... Today, we're off on our final repositioning to North Berwick - a small town just north of Berwick. Another quaint seaside town, this time at the mouth of the firth (bay) that Edinburgh is set upon - but we have some stops along the way. 

Our first stop is Saint Andrews! Saint Andrews is known for three things. 1) St Andrews Golf Club, 2) The University of St Andrews, and 3) St Andrew's Cathedral.  So we did them all! 

The golf course is a Mecca for golf-people, who call it The Old Lady and consider it the birthplace of modern golf. It's the oldest playable course in the world and commonly hosts The Open. We parked in a public lot near the first tee and the last hole, so of course we wandered over to the course to take a look. The shop$ on this end of town make it clear that this is a Very Big Deal, and I expected some decent action... and we watched a woman drive an absolute worm-burner straight off the tee.  Not that I'm one to judge, in our family golf is played by choosing a single club and wandering around our old elementary school aiming for playground equipment or trying to ping a dumpster. 

Next was The University of St Andrews! The third-oldest British university, founded in 1413, it's quite cute. My dad really wanted to see the quad, so we did, and next on the list was the campus chapel. St Salvador's Chapel was closed for a wedding... as attested to by various groomsmen milling about, kilts and all. Outside the chapel, we found the PH on the pavement that marks the martyrdom of some tiresome protestant. [Patrick Hamilton was the very first of the tiresome Scottish Protestants. He attempted to reform the Catholic church, of which he was a priest, and was promptly arrested for heresy in 1528. He was sentenced to death, and - to preclude any chance of rescue - burned that same day at the stake, right where we stood. Students will not stand there however, as it's rumored you'll fail your exams if you do.]

Our next stop wasn't on the top three: Lunch! Nobody much cared where we ate as long as we did, so we ended up at some small spot Rick Steves recommended. Still on the campus side of town though, we're not paying golf-people prices. Good food, a lot of it, and every single waitresses stopped by to flirt with Oli. 

Rounding out the hit list: St Andrew's Cathedral! Speaking of troublesome protestants again, the cock's come home to roost. Scotland banned Catholicism in 1560 [just 30 years after they burned PH,  sparking a reformation], leaving their gargantuan cathedral vacant and unused.  So, of course, it was slowly robbed for parts. One thing lead to another, and eventually someone burned off the roof to steal the lead. Then a storm blew over a wall, which was scrapped for cobble, and so on and whatnot until today, with a few architectural bones tower amid cropped parkland. It's beautifully eerie to walk down the nave, on grass, admiring a east wall reaching towards the heavens with neither transept in sight. Definitely the high-point of the day, we spent a great half-hour wandering the ruins and deciphering shards of history.

St Andrews complete, we hiked back to the car, passing a castle! It looked rather ruined and "mid". How spoiled are we to dismiss castle ruins triple the age of our country so casualy? [In retrospect... I wouldn't have skipped it. There's a full drama of mine and countermine dug out beneath that castle - a history I only learned about now. I love sketchy tunnels and weird military strategy, so I absolutely would have crawled down there.]

We then left St Andrews for my last spin behind the wheel. Driving on the wrong side, hitting roundabouts at highway speeds, surprise single-lane... I'm finally accustomed to all of it. But now that there's only 7 of us, we don't need two 9 passenger vans. So we dropped my van off. "No hubcap?" "Nah we lost it on some single track between..." "Aye nae bother, sign here an' ye're sorted."

Rather boring stop, but that's for the best. One final leg to North Berwick -  and once we got off the A-road we passed some Coos just outside town! I might finally get a picture of them now since I'm not allowed to drive. We also passed a giant rock. I'm pretty sure it's the basalt core of an ancient volcano scraped away by glaciers, but I'll learn more and get back to you. 50/50 odds we end up hiking it, seems like the out sort of Sisyphean daytrip.

We got two BNB's this time, right across the hall from each other. They're both almost-undecorated in a very aesthetic way, and they look out over the North Sea. A much angrier, windier north sea, with chop crashing against undersea rocks beneath overcast skies and some barren isles in the distance. It's a melancholy vibe with the frisson of a threatening storm, and I love it.

A/D went out to pick up dinner (Thai-Chinese), which we politely scarfed down, as Sage was melting. She refused to nap for the second (third?) day in a row, which meant anything was a tragedy.  Can't sit next to mom, can't drink water from the blue cup, not allowed to smash rice-crackers into her brother's face... Soul-crushing injustice, all of it.  The Thai was great though.

Afterwards, I just lounged in my room (the living room - I've got a couch tonight) and blogged, smothered in a pile of blankets and half-watching the the sun set over a brooding ocean. My parents stopped by to chat and mom found an astrolabe on the bookshelf - so my dad and I had to take a crack at astronavigation based entirely on the hazy memories of the Horatio Hornblower books we'd both read as kids. With a decent guess (though nothing I'd trust over the horizon), it's time to burrow into my couch, turn off the light, and let the wind howling over the chimney gently tug my consciousness loose.