When we talked about going to Scotland while on this vacation to see The Olde Course in St. Andrews, we kept going back to "This trip is all about Ireland. Let's focus on Ireland for now." But that all changed on Day 5 when we met a couple from Santa Barbara, CA at the Tullamore DEW distillery tour. Their next stop was St. Andrews for him to play the Olde Course. They also said that on Sundays the course is closed. Anyone and everyone is invited to walk the course for free. It was the first we ever heard of this tradition, and since we had not yet made plans for our final week in Ireland, we researched the cost and the time to make this happen.
There are ferries across the Irish Sea to Scotland, but then there are trains and buses and taxis involved to get to St. Andrews. Too time consuming. Ryanair charges only $50 each to fly from Belfast to Edinburgh, Scotland. It was an easy train ride and bus ride into St. Andrews. Done. We decided this was our moment to walk the fairways of the great legends...Bobby Jones and Arnold Palmer, among thousands of others. To put this side trip into perspective, some of our taxi fairs were higher priced than the travel expenses in Scotland.
Before we get to the details of St. Andrews, here are some pictures of our Airbnb farmhouse in the hills of Belfast. This house was only ten minutes from Belfast International Airport, and since our Airbnb host had to go to work, he asked his 70-year-old neighbor to be our ride to the airport. Our driver was there at 1:30pm sharp. We thanked him to for being on time, and he said, "Jim told me to!" The afternoon flight allowed us to sleep in, make our own breakfast in the large kitchen, and catch up on blogging.
Our room was above the red front door.
This photo of Seamus Heaney was in our room. I was reminded of our conversation with the English teacher on the train who was taken aback when I said I had never heard of this famous Irish poet. He then asked me in serious Irish wit, "Have you heard of the Beetles?" I deserved that one.
View from our bedroom window.
farm cat
The Belfast airport had robot servers named "BellaBot." Here they are waiting for instructions.
Our food is delivered to our table #207. After we take our food off the shelves, the robot says, "Bye" and then scoots back to her station with the words "Enjoy" flashing on her screen.
Caesar Salad with Chicken and a chicken burger with chips. A delicious airport lunch.
While we were waiting for our meal, we watched the activity at the Burger King next door. The two groups below were ordering from the kiosk.
There was a group of 20 young men and 10 young women dressed in Scottish clothing. I assumed they would be on our flight, and I was right. We saw them later on at the gate.
This bride squad of eight was not on our flight. It's anyone's guess where they were going, but we have seen almost a dozen of these bride squads throughout our trip in Ireland. It's very popular. Same with the bachelor parties. We've seen some crazy outfits along the way.
This set of clouds reminded me of the Wizard of Oz.
It's such a short flight, 25 minutes total, we were only at cruising speed for about 10 minutes.
At first glance, Edinburgh looks much like Ireland.
Welcome to Edinburgh, Scotland. It's sunny now, but it didn't take long for the fog to roll in
and get very Harry Potter-ish.
Yes, we had to walk down the stairs across the tarmac to the building.
In the photo above, Edinburgh Castle looms over the city streets.
Before we left Ireland, I practiced saying the city name correctly. Ed-in-burr-ah, so I wouldn't sound like a complete tourist. They have their own castle looming over the city, and the fog blowing in gave it character. I imagined Edinburgh to have only a few large old buildings, hotels, etc, but the ride from the airport to the train station in the city center blew my mind. Everywhere I looked I saw ancient structures. Knowing we were just passing through was a bit of a disappointment, but there's only so much time. "Less is more" is our motto on this trip.
This is our train to a town near St. Andrews where a short bus ride will take us the rest of the way.
Patrick has been a genius figuring out how to get from A to B. He just points me in the right direction and hopes I don't get too far behind him taking pictures. He's keeps close watch so we don't get separated and has a tremendous amount of patience with my wanderings.
Below are sights along the train ride. The countryside looked a lot like Ireland, but the housing was a bit grander.
Our bus to St. Andrews. It's getting real.
Along our walk to our Airbnb we stopped to pose in front of this "Elderly people" sign. A cab driver drove by as we took the picture and waved to us with a big smile. Gotta laugh at this stage of our lives.
Our Airbnb is in a modest house about close to the bus stop to take us to St. Andrews. Our window is on the second story on the left. Jackie and Trevor are avid golfers. Jackie plays St. Andrews often. She said she shot at 71 with her handicap figured. The day we arrived she shot 103. She said she kept going from bunker to bunker, and we were about to find out, in person, how wicked those bunkers are.
Our room has everything we need. A fridge full of breakfast and lunch items, tea, coffee, a small dinette table, and Netflix on the TV. We settled in and went back into town for dinner and to find a pub. We'll find the Olde Course tomorrow.
Molly Malone's near University of St. Andrews. This part of town has a lot of students and student bars, beautiful high end shops, take out food places, and countless taxis for tourists and students. University of St. Andrews is where Prince William went to college.
We got into town too late for dinner, so all we had to eat was chips. After walking into too many student bars, we finally found Greyfriars Pub. That's where the golfers go. We heard more American accents in their than any other. We met guys from Texas and South Carolina, watched the PGA Championship, and took the last bus back to our Airbnb. It was a long day, but it was easy to stay awake. We were in St. Andrews, Scotland!
After I took this picture, the guy walking out of the pub on the right gave us a big wave. I missed another moment, but I'm enjoying the fact that they're okay with these random photos.
The last bus of the night. We were hoping to be home by 11:45pm to watch the Preakness horse race, but we missed it. Just as well. It was time for bed. We have a big day tomorrow.
