Edinburgh

I'm sure everyone is disappointed that I don't have a cruise post, but this will have to do. Angie and I disembarked the boat about 6:15am thinking it might take a while to get off and to make sure we had plenty of time to make our 9:30 bus ride to Heathrow. As it turns out, we could have spent a little longer on the boat as we reached the bus terminal at 6:30. The three hour wait was not wasted as Angie sat next to our first real celebrity of the trip. Her real name is Patricia Krentcil, but is much better known as Tan Mom. If you listen to Howard Stern at all, you would recognize who she was. It started as Angie pointed out this really annoying lady who was asking non stop stupid questions while I was gone for a walk. She looked kind of familiar, but when she opened her mouth, there was no doubt who she was. Luckily a seat opened up next to us and she sat beside Angie and peppered her with inane questions. Thankfully, her bus wasn't coming until 11:30 and we were able to escape. My only regret is that I didn't get a picture of her. We had an uneventful flight to Edinburgh, but were happy to get to our hotel by 4:00. If anyone has told you that Edinburgh is one of the most beautiful cities they have ever seen, they are underestimating it. We went for a walk around the old part of the city and were amazed.

We even ran into a young man playing the bagpipes.

We stopped at Berties and had a meal of proper fish and chips.

We slept in a bit this morning before having breakfast at the hotel. We then set off to see the Holy Grail of golf, the Old Course at St Andrews.

We took the train to a town called Leuchars about an hour away and jumped on a bus for a 15 minute ride to the town. It's like watching a movie as you drive into town and see the golf course and the surrounding buildings.

We walked by the first tee and 18th green before walking down the path adjacent to the 1st fairway. About halfway down the fairway is a road that you can walk right across the two fairways. We just had to watch out for the golfers. We walked down to the 17th hole also known as the road hole. I saw how small the green is and how narrow it is between the bunker and the road.

Something seemed odd about the way the golfers were playing the course and that's when I noticed they were playing the course backwards. Players were teeing off on 1st tee and playing to 17th green and so on after that. The last hole, tee off was from the second tee to the 18th green. The book I read on the boat talked a bit about that, so I understood what was happening. On the way back towards the first tee I saw a gentleman walking with his clubs and I asked him if he was playing today and he answered tomorrow. I asked him what he thought of the backwards round and he wasn't that impressed, but he was willing to try it. He must have thought I knew a little about the game and to our surprise he invited us to his clubhouse for a drink and a chance to warm up. We of course took him up on his offer. It turns out he is a member of The New Club, which isn't that new. It was started in 1902 and the clubhouse overlooks the 18th fairway. We sat in what used to be the locker room, but is now the coffee shop. Near the window overlooking the 18th is an looking glass that Old Tom Morris used when he was watching the course. In fact, Old Tom died after falling down some stairs in the clubhouse.

Here is the board that names the honorary members and it's a pretty short, but significant list. As we kept on talking with the gentleman, it turn's out his name is Charlie Huldal and he was a past Club Captain which is a very big honour. It was purely a stroke of luck to meet him, but it made a great day much, much better.

After that, we took a walk by St Andrew's College where Prince William and Kate first met. Right behind that was St Andrew's Castle where they used to throw witches off a 60 foot cliff into the Firth of Forth to see if they were truly a witch. If they died, they weren't a witch. If they survived, they were deemed to be a witch and were summarily burned at the stake. Didn't seem like a winning proposition either way.

Here is a picture of the 18th green with the famous "valley of sin" on the front left. After about 4 hours in St Andrew's, we sadly took the train back to Edinburgh and are getting ready for our next adventure in Dublin. Stay Tuned!!!