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Wednesday July 3rd

Up  and at ‘em early this morning. We needed to catch the 8:31 train to Leuchars so we could catch the bus to St. Andrews. We of course were early for all modes of transportation… well the bus runs about every 10 minutes or so, From the bus station, we walked around the roundabout to downtown St. Andrews. After being in Edinburgh for a few days it was a shock to have to pay for use of a toilet. Or maybe the shock of not paying for the toilets in Edinburgh had worn off and now we were back to reality. It was ust 30p but who has that kind of cash and why would you want to tap your cc to go…???

Walking around St. Andrews, we noticed several young men and women wearing their graduation robes. Turns out St. Andrews University graduates from June 30-July 5. Young men sometimes wear their kilts under their robes. So I got lots of pictures today. I think my favorite one, and I didn’t manage to capture the little one, was a picture of a father, son, and little all wearing their Scottish regalia. I have always said, “I love a man in uniform”, but I am beginning to think there is nothing wrong with a man in a kilt. 

Fiona was our tour guide, and our little group grew by 6 as a small group from Massachusetts joined us. And for those of you wondering, yes I did say, “Go Bills!” when they said they were from Massachusetts. I am who I am. 

Fiona was quite lovely and walked us all over St. Andrews waxing poetic about religion, the University, and of course… golf. I mean who knew that the British Open was played at St. Andrews every 5 years? Just kidding. Tim was in heaven. He loves golf. 

The best thing about St. Andrews, besides Butts Wynd, was the graduation procession we stumbled upon. The faculty and students are lead by a bagpiper and parade around St. Salvator courtyard. However, before the bagpiper, the carillon announces the procession and Fiona said there were actually bell pullers playing the carillon. I could have stayed watching the procession as they processed in a tighter and tighter circle, allowing all to view the graduates. In fact, both Fiona and Jim had to come back and find me. Oops, my bad!

Moving along through the university, we learned that the front doors painted blue were part of the University. I actually viewed someone painting their doorway blue, and not knowing the significance commented on the bright color! I did find a door painted orange and had to get it’s picture.

I mentioned Fiona told us we would learn about 3 things on our visit. Here are some of the things I learned:

University:

• Doors painted blue
• Chambers-Noted publisher, wrote a book about evolution 15 years before Darwin, but because of controversy moved to St. Andrews and published anonymously
• Wardlaw Museum-university museum talking about the culture and traditions at the university with a statue of St. Andrew who not only is the patron saint of Scotland, but also the patron saint of the town
• 3rd oldest university in the world? And has only a 8-10% acceptance rate. 
• Younger Hall-where the students earned their degree was donated by a man named Younger and he was a brewer

Golf:

• Tom Morris-son of a weaver (his dad was a weaver, his grandad was a weaver, 3 uncles on his mother’s side were weavers….), he is known as the Grand Old Man of Golf, won 4 Grand Championships, There is a book and film (Tommy’s Honor) made about his and his son’s life
• Bronze sculpture outside the Royal & Ancient  is called Faces of Golf and is by British-American sculptor Lawrence Holofcner. It contains the faces of 116 famous golfers from Mary Queen of Scots through to when the work was created in 2015. There are 93 men and 23 women included.
• King James II banned golf until King James IV-during that time there were rabbit farmers who lived where the public course is today
• Thomas Hamilton tried to join “the club” but was denied and bought the building across the street and refurbished into apartments
• Koehler bought the Playfair and the Hamilton and brought them back to life

Religion/History

• The West Suns beach was the opening scene in Chariot’s of Fire
• In the 18th C witches were thrown in amongst the rocks (West Suns)- bones of the innocents (the ones who drowned) were found many years later
• Martyr’s Monument-recognizing 4 men who didn’t accept the way the catholic church was and spoke out against it and then were killed.
• Both the church and the castle were destroyed and the sites were used as rock quarries for the town

Did you know that the Prime Meridian was actually discovered in St. Andrews before England? Yeah, me neither, but here it is.

We ended the tour with a pint, a walk back to the bus station, a ride on a train, and walked back to our hotel.

If you notice the blue water bottles throughout our pictures, those are the ones that Tom from Wellington gave us way back in October! We thought they were great bottles and have been carrying them around with us.

#HowFortunateWeAre #RetiredAndLovingIt #MakingOurOwnSunshine