Backblog: Round 1, St. Andrews

I've been a bad blogger, and could spend a whole post apologizing for this fact, and providing a list of convincing excuses, but I'd rather get on with it - I think you probably would as well!

So, let's backtrack: just over two weeks ago we took another day long jaunt, this time up the coast to St. Andrews. We lucked out and had brilliant weather all day, which I think only added to the good impression made upon me by the town.

Of course, no daytrip would be complete without a little castle-visiting. The ruined St Andrews castle is fairly small by Stirling or Edinburgh standards, but neat to poke around in nevertheless (they even have a preserved mine and counter-mine running under the castle - which I did go a little ways into, despite my fear of tiny, dimly lit underground passages).



The castle also commands a rather nice point looking out over the North Sea. Here's a view of the castle from the adjacent shore, at low tide.


St. Andrews Cathedral, however, definitely makes up for what the castle lacks in size. This pic of me (in my dorky, Montreal-esque fake Ray Bans) only kinda sorta gives you an idea.



If the cathedral is this impressive in its ruined state, you can only imagine what it must have been like in its prime. And it was completed in the 12th century! It blows my mind to think that things like this could be built so long ago...



Here is a view of (L-R) the cathedral, the town, and the castle, as viewed from St. Rude's tower:


It also amazes me that all of these grand ruins and buildings, centuries old, are so often smack dab in the middle of the city or town, with ordinary people living and working around them.


Or - going to school around them. St Andrews University (yes mother, the alma mater of Prince Will) is a collection of nice grand old buildings lined along and just in from the coast. Below, for example, is the Department of Economics:


Kind of reminds me of Queens - old buildings, leaf-strewn lawns, waterfront property, preppy undergrads wandering by in sweatpants and uggs (seriously - the uniform spans the Atlantic).


Speaking of the Atlantic: the beach in St. Andrews was lovely. Lots of kids flying kites, and even windsurfers! (in wetsuits... it definitely wasn't a day for swimming).

St Andrews is also the birthplace of golf, so we took a stoll just a little bit inland from the beach to check out the famous courses.


This is the "New Course," I believe. Apparently it is ridiculously impossible (or at least ridiculously expensive) to get to play on the "Old Course," which is, as its title suggests, the oldest golf course in the world. We were really hoping to find some tourist-trap mini-golf course, but no luck - only a putting green (bo-ring) which claims to be the first mini-golf course. No shortage of golf shops, however - I think in the end we counted close to 15 about the town.

So while I wouldn't have wanted to go to school there (too small of a town for me), I quite enjoyed St Andrews. Those of you who have nothing better to do with your time may have noticed that this castle was castle number four - in fact you are wrong. I've skipped over my visit to Edinburgh castle because I've been twice now, and want to put up all the pictures together with those I took during my friend Kate's visit - await them in round 2 of backblog!

PS - Just FYI, I've opened up comments now, so everyone should now be able to post comments without registering, if they'd like to do so!