Edinburgh & St Andrews, Scotland
After photographing the wedding in York, England, we traveled to Edinburgh, Scotland. It was a 2.5-hour train ride, and we saw some of the most beautiful English landscapes as we traveled north to the capitol city of Scotland. It was also a lot cooler weather, and our hotel did not have air conditioning in the rooms (it didn’t need it though).
Scotland was the last leg of our trip, and we caught the train from York to Scotland the morning after the wedding. By this point, Joe and I felt like professional international travelers! We had the English pound (money) down pat, knew how to catch taxis, use those electric plug converters without blowing fuses in our hotel rooms so we could charge our cell phones and computers, and Kathleen knew to always order a coca-cola without a slice of lemon (yuck)!
City of Edinburgh & Edinburgh Castle
St Andrews – Golf at The Old Course
The main reason we included Scotland in our trip itinerary was because Joe wanted to try and play golf at The Old Course in St Andrews. The Old Course at St Andrews is one of the oldest golf courses in the world. It’s considered by many to be the “home of golf” because the sport was first played on the Links at St Andrews in the early 1400s. Fun fact: Prince William also attended the University of St. Andrews.
To get to The Old Course, we woke up at 4:30 am in the morning to catch a 5:30 am train from Edinburgh Waverly train station to Leuchars station. We arrived at Leuchars station (in the middle of a huge field) at 6:30 am, and then caught a 7:00 am bus to the town of St. Andrews. Then, we walked from the St. Andrews bus station to the golf course and stood in line with all the other golfers who were hoping to play that day. Eleven people were in line in front of us (including a newlywed couple who traveled to St Andrews for their honeymoon in hopes of golfing at this course), and the first guy in line had arrived at 3:00 am that morning! The starter arrived at 7:30 am, and he assigned Joe a 10:30 am tee time with the caveat that he would “try his best to get him on, but not everyone gets to play, so it’s not guaranteed.”
The weather that day was frigid cold and the wind was insane! It was blowing so hard, that you had to lean into the wind to walk, and it never stopped blowing. Check out this video showing just how windy it was all day long!
Fortunately, the starter was able to get Joe on, and he teed off around 11:00 am. His caddy wore shorts, and we had no idea how in the world he was not frozen by the 3rd hole! Kathleen walked the entire course with Joe and his caddy (golf carts are not allowed on the course), two players from Ohio (two men who were traveling on business and had the day off) and their caddys, and a high school boy from Scotland who was in St Andrew’s “on holiday” (vacation) with his parents, and his caddy. His dad walked the course with him.
Forgan’s Restaurant
After playing an entire round of golf at The Old Course, Joe and I were starving! We walked into the town of St. Andrews and stumbled upon Forgan’s, one of the loveliest restaurants we visited during our entire trip to England! Along Market Street in St Andrews, Forgan’s restaurant is situated in an old golf club factory building that was noted to be the oldest golf club factory in the world dating back to 1860s.
Not only is the market style decor lovely, Forgan’s is a member of the Sustainable Restaurant Association. Forgan’s believes in sustainable agriculture, and sources its food from local artisan suppliers and producers. One interesting aspect of the restaurant is that it has “bothies,” which are private spaces that seat up to 12 people, each in an individual room and with a fireplace.
