Tuesday 18th September 2018, St. Andrews, Fife
We have already been here for two nights and this morning are invited for coffee with Jane and David in their home near the cathedral. Actually, we bumped into Jane on a zebra crossing in town yesterday and I don’t know which of us was the more surprised! We'd taken the bus from outside the campsite into the centre for the day and were seeking somewhere for coffee. This seems to be the usual pattern to our days. We are so exhausted after coping with our morning domestic tasks of bed making, finding a change of clothes, and preparing breakfast in something as diminutive as Modestine, that we are always in need of a coffee once we reach our destination.
Today for example I am writing this as we sit cramped in with a pair of dripping jeans that I washed in the handbasin this morning. It is raining and anyway, this campsite is so posh and elegant they'd probably be apoplectic if they saw our washing hanging from the nearby tree! So the jeans will have to be left to drip into a bowl while we go off on the bus for the day.
We last left you in Canoustie after an exhausting day around Dundee. Today we are only really just around the bay, reached by crossing the Tay road bridge from where the new development of the V&A shows gleaming on the waterfront on one side while to the other is the Tay rail bridge with the vestiges of the original bridge that lasted so briefly and lives on for ever as the worst disaster in the history of Dundee.
What can one do on a Scottish Sunday when the wind is blowing and the air is chill? Not a great deal. Last Sunday we chose to discover what was happening in Forfar. Basically it is not greatly bigger than a village but as the only centre around for miles it benefits from a large car park and an Asda with a coffee shop and stale buns run by a friendly but harassed young lady who insisted their coffees were too strong and divided one into two cups each topped-up with hot water and charged us for one coffee!! Personally I like my coffee strong but she was in charge so we did as we were told. It made a more spacious place to read the Sunday papers than Modestine and they were supplied courtesy of Asda.
The streets of the town were almost deserted but with several potentially attractive corners. Overall though Forfar appeared shabby and sad. A shame as I've always wanted to see it. Somewhere with a name like that ought to be lively and cheerful - it was neither. We explored the local campsite. With so little on offer in the town we felt the £36 a night they quoted was way too much, though there seemed to be others who must have discovered Forfar's well hidden charms as it was quite busy. We moved on, driving through the centre of Dundee, despite our having used the bus the previous day expressly to avoid doing just that! At St. Andrews we found our way to our present site which offered four nights for the price of three. So it works our at half the price of Forfar per night and we need four nights here anyway so it's ideal.
Yesterday we were at the bus stop in good time for the three mile ride into the centre. Chatting with a couple of other guests from the campsite we discovered we were all from Devon. They lived in North Devon but were of Scottish origin. They had also worked for Devon County Council before their retirement. Small world.
We spent a very enjoyable day around St. Andrews and have been completely seduced by its charms. It is Freshers week and the streets were crowded with eager young students discovering their new environment and making friends. St. Andrews was the third University to be founded in Britain - after Oxford and Cambridge. It has a wealth of lovely grey stone buildings, most of the grander ones being faculties of the university. The town overlooks the sea and the ruins of the cathedral dominate the cliffs with the equally ruinous remains of the castle nearby.
West Port. Saint Andrews Scotland.
Cathedral. Saint Andrews, Scotland.
Cathedral. Cloisters. Saint Andrews, Scotland.
Cathedral. Saint Rule's Tower. Saint Andrews, Scotland.
Castle. Saint Andrews, Scotland.
Castle. Saint Andrews, Scotland.
Castle. Saint Andrews, Scotland.
The cathedral was sacked in the 16th century following the preaching of John Knox, the Calvinist Protestant leader for an ultra Protestant Scotland. However, the ruined walls one sees today seem more powerful as a statement than even the original cathedral could have achieved. The ruins show the transition from Romanesque to Gothic. Seeing only the vestiges of the building it is easier to understand the parts that make up a cathedral. Stumps mark the original columns of the nave with the altar beyond. Surrounding the Cathedral are the tombs of those who died in the city from the 17th and 18th century.
Cathedral. Saint Andrews, Scotland.
Cathedral. West front. Saint Andrews, Scotland.
Cathedral. High altar. Saint Andrews, Scotland.
The rest of the day was passed on our feet. It is a very pleasant city with many different facets. Apart from several museums and galleries there is a botanic garden, the grounds of the different colleges’ the famous golf courses, an aquarium with seals swimming in the former town pool on the sea shore and a small fishing port with local fishing boats being repaired or discharging their catches.
Fishing harbour. Saint Andrews,Scotland.
The town has several parallel streets of individual shops interspersed with a few essentials - Sainsbury, Tesco, Starbucks and Costers. Students all appeared to be from affluent families and not short of funds to spend in the pleasant but expensive cafes. There are many Chinese and American students and special Freshers menus advertise lobster and champagne for £70 a time! American students arriving aged 18 are eager to take advantage of the fact that although they may have had to leave their fire arms behind, they can legally drink alcohol despite being underage back home! Apparently there have been problems with them consuming whiskey without realising the full consequences.
Dominican Priory. Saint Andrews, Scotland.
Christian Institute. Saint Andrews, Scotland.
Gregory's Meridian. Saint Andrews, Scotland.
Saint Salvator's College. Saint Andrews, Scotland.
South Castle Street. Saint Andrews Scotland.
University. Saint Andrews, Scotland.
Kilduncan Stone. Saint Andrews, Scotland.
Saint Andrews pilgrim badge. Saint Andrews, Scotland.
Down on the links overlooking the sea, there were groups of all ages wearing baseball caps and pulling trolleys as they made their way around the gusty course in the slight mizzle being blown in on the sea breeze. Meanwhile, back in the town we went for lunch at the town museum and pottered through the art gallery with its Peplows and even a Lowry. The museum is set on the edge of the old town amidst lawns and flower borders where a constant stream of students make their way back and forth between the new buildings of the university and the old ones of the colleges, research libraries and bars and cafes of the town.
Royal and Ancient Golf Club. Saint Andrews, Scotland.
Royal and Ancient Golf Club. Saint Andrews, Scotland.
Golfers in the streets of Saint Andrews,Scotland.
We have heard that there are over 100 places to eat and drink in St. Andrews! Considering we found it difficult to find anywhere reasonably priced and friendly for a rest this surprised us. One place we stopped for a coffee each and a slice of coffee cake for Ian cost us over £11! Another tea shop attracted tourists with a large sign in the window announcing that this was “where Wills met Kate”.
Around 5pm we were so weary we couldn't explore any longer and took the bus back to where we are camping where we collapsed for an hour before gathering enough energy to prepare supper.
Wednesday 19th September 2018, St. Andrews
Yesterday we returned to St. Andrews. We'd been invited to visit Ian's friends Jane and David in their lovely home near the cathedral. Jane was on the doorstep of their attractive stone-built terraced house that fronted directly on to the wide main street. The house was built as late as 1901 but blends perfectly with others around the city from an earlier date. Such large houses were normally divided up as separate flats and originally our friends' flat was their holiday home while for forty years they lived and worked in Durham. Recently though they also bought the ground floor flat and sold up in Durham to move permanently to St. Andrews where they have both been subsumed into the life of the university. David is closely involved in research into the local history of the city and sits on numerous academic committees. Jane became friends with Ian and others when they all met as postgraduate students at Sheffield library school. They have all remained friends ever since.
South Street. Saint Andrews, Scotland.
Having received a guided tour of the lovely house and its garden, which Jane has set out with old fashioned flowers that perfectly reflect the charm of its age, we sat in the upstairs lounge watching the main street of the city where groups of students strolled and teenage children scuttled late through the gate in the wall opposite, to their private school. Further down the street the skeletal shape of the cathedral rose up against the crisp blue sky.
Over coffee Ian and Jane discussed mutual friends, the recent reunion in Sheffield and the delights of retirement. Then David returned from a committee meeting with the University local history centre and Jane decided we should stay for lunch. So all said we spent a very happy morning with friends inside a real and very lovely home, crowded with books and memories. We left feeling warm and happy, delighted to have visited friends in a real house! So different from our vagabond lifestyle in a very small campervan! Thank you both for a lovely morning. The comforts of a proper home are very welcome after a month amongst strangers with a different resting place each night!
We returned to further explore the cathedral and to visit the museum of local history set in an old cottage surrounded by a pretty cottage garden with outside buildings representing trades of the early 20th century. There was a double seater outside privy, a wash house, a garden potting shed and a smithy showing how workmen made and repaired their tools.
Saint Andrews Preservation Trust Museum. Saint Andrews, Scotland.
Saint Andrews Preservation Trust Museum. Scotland.
We returned early to catch the bus back to our campsite where a kind passenger ensured we got off at the correct stop.
