St. Andrews, Scotland
After a quick, but wonderful time in Edinburgh, it was time to pack our bags and head on to our next destination. That night we would be sleeping in Loch Lomond at the fabulous Cameron House, but before that, we had to get there. We decided to take the scenic route, via the Kingdom of Fife, and the birthplace of golf, St. Andrews. We decided to take this route by rental car… And we were going to drive ourselves… On the wrong side of the road… With a steering wheel on the wrong side of the car…
To say the least, this should be interesting…. After a quick run through of the vehicle, and all the necessary paperwork, we were the proud owners, (for the next 24 hours), of a brand new, (which they mentioned no fewer than 15 times), Hyundai. We were told this was a very popular family car in the UK, although it was smaller than our parents station wagons.
After the first couple of turns onto new roads, Jordan seemed to be getting the hang of, it, and I noticed that his knuckles were returning to their original color.
We headed out to the Scottish countryside. First stop, The Kingdom of Fife.
The drive was beautiful, and it was nice to have the freedom of our own car again. Along the way, we passed through lots of tiny towns that were a part of the Kingdom of Fife. We decided to stop in the town of Auchtermuchty, a mouthful, which I'm sure is why the locals refer to it as simply "Muchty".
We hadn't had lunch, so we found a spot, and headed in, our bellies grumbling for some shepherds pie.
While they had just sold their last shepherds pie of the day, we got a true taste of a small Scottish town in a short hour and a half.
The place looked like a dive bar, but seemed to serve the whole small town of Muchty. Familes were having lunch, locals were enjoying a weekday afternoon pint, and the bartender was playing a customer with a dog in a very nasty game of darts.
It totally made us feel like we were getting a true taste of the local culture, and what started out as an apprehensive lunch in an unknown town, turned out to be one of the most interesting stops on our trip. The people couldn't have been nicer, or more welcoming, and we enjoyed our lunch as much as we appreciated learning about the regional way of life in Auchtermuchty.
After a filling lunch, we headed a little further into Fife, and our final destination, St. Andrews.
St. Andrews is so much more than what it's known best for, (golf). It's a beautiful little town on the water with cute shops, restaurants, green spaces and monuments. Like many places in Scotland, we were so happy we had added it to our itinerary, and only wished we had more time to spend there.
We walked through the town, shopping for souvenirs, and searching for anything that said "Fife" on it.
At the end of the main town street was St. Andrews Cathedral.
the ruins are from an old roman catholic cathedral that was built in 1158
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The ruins indicate that the cathedral was the largest church to have been built in Scotland.
We headed back the way we came, and caught some images of the town.
We even found a beer named after us! And it was
delicious!!!
After a lot of searching, we have sadly come to the conclusion that we won't be able to find it, or get it shipped over here.
We even found a famous cat, Hamish McHamish. You can read more about his rise to fame in St. Andrews, and thanks to social media, worldwide on
.
St. Andrews is somewhere we will definitely visit again, and the second time around, we plan to spend more than just an afternoon there.