This past weekend, Joe and I decided to take a short weekend trip to St. Andrew's. We thought it might do us some good to get out of town and see some more of this beautiful country. It was fantastic! We rented a car and drove up to St. Andrew's on Saturday morning. St. Andrew's is only about 40 miles away, but it took us a good hour or so to get there. Joe was amazing--he is always our driver when we go on vacations and has driven in some interesting, and difficult, situations. This was no different--the car was manual, with the steering wheel on the American-passenger side, and he had to drive on the opposite side of the road from America. There were a couple of scary moments, but he seemed to get the hang out it quickly and did a great job!
Anyway, it was rainy and windy for a majority of the weekend, but we made the most of it and enjoyed the sights and some good food.
We visited the ruins of the St. Andrew's Castle. I am sad that there are just ruins now, it must have been an amazing place at one point. It sits on a cliff, right over the sea.
We also walked through the ruins of the St. Andrew's Cathedral. This too must have been one amazing place at one time. The ruins themselves were incredible and it seems that the Cathedral covered quite a bit of territory. It was left to ruin after the Reformation, when Protestantism became the religion of the region and Catholicism was no longer so prominent. There is an a cemetery at the Cathedral as well, with markers from as far back as the early 1800s (that we could read, there were dozens that were unreadable).
Old Tom Morris, and his son (Young Tom Morris), are also buried at the Cathedral.
The University of St. Andrew's Library
St. Andrew's is located on the North Sea. It was overcast while we were visiting, but the views of the sea and the beach were quite breathtaking.
As you likely know, St. Andrew's is the home of golf. It is also home to one of the oldest and most famous golf course, Old Course. I wasn't expecting anything that amazing, but I have to admit, it was quite beautiful.
A view across Old Course to the Royal and Ancient Golf Club
Since it was raining a lot, we also stopped by a few museums. This is the St. Andrew's Museum.
Stayed tuned...day 2 will be posted tomorrow!
No comments:
Post a Comment