Leaving the UK

We left Scotland this morning at 10:30 and drove all the way straight to London arriving close to 9:00 PM. Traffic was not so fun. I am sitting in a London/Heathrow hotel wishing I were anywhere but here. I really hate big cities. It's unusually warm for London, the windows barely crack open, there is no ventilation so we can't really close the windows, people from the restaurant below are smoking underneath our windows, there is no fan, there are Mosquitos. The airplanes can be heard every few minutes. I think I am just tired, which is why I am complaining a lot. :-) I am not especially excited about getting on a plane again.

But...

I can't wait to be home with my dog. I want to eat my own food. I want to smell my own house. I want to set up me classroom wherever I will be assigned. I want to visit with familiar faces and places.

We loved our trip and would love to return again, especially to Scotland.

Now it's time to go home. :-)

Thanks for sharing this trip with us!

Quick trip to Edinburgh

From St. Andrews, we drove our car to Leuchars to park and hop on the train to Edinburgh-Waverly station. 

An hour later, we were in Edinburgh. Our afternoon started at St. Andrews Square in New Town (they were doing promo stuff for the upcoming British Open which would be held in Muirfield, Scotland this year so Mike got to take a pic of the Claret Jug there) and lunch at Hard Rock Cafe, then we hopped onto one of those city council hop on/hop off double decker bus tours and saw the city in a fast forward fashion. :-)

We prefer small towns...

However, we did get some decent Edinburgh pics while we were there:

Exploring the town of St. Andrews...

St. Andrews is a fun town to be in. Not too big, not too small. Nice people all around. Here are some pics we took.

The arch bridge down near St. Andrews cathedral.

The ruins of St. Andrews cathedral built in 1158.

The cemetery on the cathedral grounds.

I recognized the name on this...William Wallace.

St. Andrews castle ruins, right on the ocean front.

A little closer....and down the street, literally half a block and beyond we're more University of St. Andrew colleges along a street called The Scores. Really neat stuff, but I didn't take pictures of those.

We ate dinner here at Ogston's two nights in a row. They were open pretty late and our schedule was all off. They had nachos and potato skins...just like home!

This is one of the few shots I have of one of St. Andrews' two beaches. Kinda hard to see because I w standing on the other side of the golf course. There were tons of people on it this day since it was warm. We got really lucky with the weather, it was warm the entire two weeks everywhere we went!

Mike found this faded sign above a store on Market Street. It says "HENDERSON THE BAKER OF GOOD ROLLS". My maiden name is Henderson. :-) The current store is different, but it must have been a bakery in the past. 

Our last night in St. Andrews I tried a Scottish soft drink called Irn Bru. It tastes like bubble gum! I loved it!

We also visited the British Golf Museum...

One of many displays...

I think these were all the programs from each British Open...

LOL This is a countdown clock they have in the museum that counts down to the next British Open.

SUCCESS!!!

Well, I guess it pays to get up at 3:30 AM, walk a couple blocks to the car to get your clubs with your wife practically in her pajamas and her teeth barely brushed, and walk four more blocks to sit outside in the cold to find you are third in line after another American couple for two hours until the starter for the Old Course at St. Andrews Golf Links shows up at 6:00 AM...all to see if there is even a possibility of walking on that day since you didn't have a tee time that you made in advance one year ahead and also couldn't enter the lottery to play as a single player.

I guess all that pays off because....HE GOT TO PLAY! :-)

And I got to walk the course with him!

That's us while he waits to tee off at Hole 17. This is the most nervewracking shot for him because he has to hit the ball over a portion of the hotel are posing in front of. 

Getting to play St. Andrews was a big deal to Mike because its basically the "home of golf". We came all the way over here hoping he would be able to get on, but not knowing for sure. To reserve a tee time at St. Andrews you need to book it one year ahead, but one year ago Mike had just ruptured his quad tendon and we didn't know for sure when he would be playing again. So he didn't make a tee time then. The next option would have been to enter a lottery a couple days ahead to get a time, but you can't enter the lottery as a single player. So the last option is to show up early the day you want to play and see if they can fit you in a slot, first come-first serve. 

We showed up in line at 4:00AM behind a nice young couple from St. Louis, Missouri which put Mike third in line. It was a fun wait...we were all Americans so we sat and swapped stories bat our experiences so far in the UK. After us came a man who grew up in Monterey and is in the Air Force. He ended up being in Mike's group later on and his wife and I walked with them as they played all 18.

He joined a foursome. Mike, the US Air Force guy from the early morning line, a German girl who is attending school in St. Andrews, and the girl's mother visiting from Germany. 

Here are some shots:

The back of the starter hut.

Mike getting ready at the first tee.

The view of the city of St. Andrews from about the second or third hole.

I loved how the ground was so rolly.

Mike with his caddy, John. Very nice man.

Mike's ball almost went into this bunker, but landed just above it.

Some caddies waiting to pick up a bag posed for me outside the caddie pavilion. :-)

So now that's checked off the list. Yay!

Last stop, St. Andrews!

We travelled across Scotland from Troon to St. Andrews which took between two to two and a half hours. We drove across this bridge:

...and while we did we spied this bridge across the way for trains:

We would later go across that red bridge when taking the train from the St. Andrews area to Edinburgh (but more on that later).

Still no Highland coos...but pretty views along the way. OMG you can see my foot in the mirror! LOL

Here we are!

The outside of our B&B...

The view down our street towards some of the many colleges of The University of St. Andrews (if you follow the royal stuff, this is the school where Prince William and Princess Kate went).

The stairs leading up to our room inside Aslar House.

I loved that we have a little couch so I am putting a pic of that. I sit here a lot on this couch (the thing will all the bags on it).

The other side of the room...

Tea "tray"!

Possibly my most favorite pic of our whole trip...eating lunch our first day in St. Andrews before Mike goes off to play at Carnoustie.

He's back with his logo ball! He said Carnoustie was the toughest course of the whole trip.

While Mike golfed at Carnoustie I did a little shopping on Market Street. I put an X on the map where the B&B is. This town is awesome. There are shops, a movie theatre, tons of golf, lots of places to eat, and the collegiate atmosphere mixed with all the golf nuts from around the world is just FUN. St. Andrews has been our favorite place so far during this entire trip.

Never saw this little guy, but I loved this ad in one of the brochures here. The seagulls in this town are CRAZY! They are so loud and territorial and sometimes sound like humans crying or cats meowing. We witnessed one steal and entire sandwich out of a guy's hand!! 

This place has THE BEST hot chocolate. They have a little sign inside that says "This is where Kate dumped Wills." Or something like that, I can't remember exactly!

Next post...does Mike get onto The Old Course at St. Andrews Links?