DAY-05: Let's Go To St. Andrews
Day – 05: Sunday, August 27, 2017
Starting Location: Edinburgh, Scotland, UK
Ending Location: St. Andrews, Scotland, UK
Today we'll move on to the Holy Grail of golf, St. Andrews.
But first we needed transportation so around 11 AM I walked over to the Edinburgh Waverley Train Station to pick up a car. It is no accident that I have chosen Sunday (less cars on the road) as the day to initiate the drivers of Scotland to a "proper American driver". As usual the Enterprise Car Rental
folks were super helpful when it comes to customer service. Within a few minutes of finding the location, not easy in Waverley Station as signage is sparse, I would be on the road, not saying where on the road but on the road just the same.
Today was our lucky day, we were upgraded to a Volvo XC60, a well equipped SUV, most importantly with automatic transmission and GPS, unfortunately it still had to be driven from the "passenger side" of the front seat. So after being shown the car's details and controls I was on my own. It took a minute of two before I had familiarized myself with the mirrors, the GPS, the lights, the audio system, the overly energized seat heater, etc., but soon I was ready to go.
In any case I made it to the street and prepared for my first right hand turn, it's just counter-intuitive. Anyway I was on the road but still needed to find my way back to the hotel otherwise Sheila and the bags would miss out on St. Andrews. I should have started using the GPS from the start rather than the city map so my route was circuitous but in the end ta-da, there was the hotel and with a quick across traffic turn I was parked in front awaiting the bellman and luggage.
By 12:30 we were on the road, this time with full dependency on the GPS, it's darn close to essential for driving in and around cities and optimizing routing (as long as you follow the directions). Another thing we soon learned about the local GPS was just how polite the spokes-model is, saying please before directing turns and offering options when instructions have been disobeyed.
Leaving Edinburgh we came upon the newly constructed Forth Bridge.
It was somewhat confusing as people had mentioned the 4th bridge but I could only count three, one railroad trestle and the old and new highway bridges. Turns out that the bridges cross the Firth of Forth thus the name Forth Bridge actually having nothing to do with a fourth bridge. Rumor was that the Queen would be up for a ribbon cutting over the upcoming weekend, actually on the 4th of September. Unfortunately we won't be able to hang around, perhaps she can catch up with us later in September when we're down her way.
We arrived in St. Andrews by mid-afternoon and immediately checked in to the Old Course Hotel.
How great was this, as we entered the foyer Sheila was greeted with this great floral display and to top that, they were playing bagpipes for our arrival as we approached the reception area.
Well actually that was our first thought, turns out the pipes were for a wedding going on in an adjacent room.
Our room overlooked the 17th fairway.
As it turns out, the Old Course is closed on Sundays but closed only to golfers, yes that's right only to golfers, anyone else is welcome to roam the course fairways at will, walking, jogging, with dogs or without, with kids or without, basically anyone doing almost anything but playing golf.
We obviously joined the strollers and made our way up the 17th and onto the 18th having stopped for photo ops on the Swilcan (aka Swilken) Bridge.
Continuing on toward the 18th green I holed out a relatively long chip shot (oh yea, nobody's playing today) but I can pretend.
We walked around the local golf area before heading back to the hotel via the Jigger Inn for a brewsky. It's here that we met a 40ish husband/father state that he was the original Mr. Grumpy Pants. (That comment will only have significance to a select few, to those of us, including me that have been called "Mr Grumpy Pants".)
For dinner we dined in one of the hotel's restaurants, something to do with "Sand", been there before, not the restaurant, the sand.
So after a day of walking in the footprints of golf history it was time to turn-in. St. Andrews is a classic place, maybe not a Great Pyramid or a Coliseum or even a Great Wall but still a place of historic significance in the Golf Age! (Editor's Note: The Golf Age was sometime after the Iron Age and Renaissance, not sure when it actually started.)
Today we'll move on to the Holy Grail of golf, St. Andrews.
But first we needed transportation so around 11 AM I walked over to the Edinburgh Waverley Train Station to pick up a car. It is no accident that I have chosen Sunday (less cars on the road) as the day to initiate the drivers of Scotland to a "proper American driver". As usual the Enterprise Car Rental
 |
| Edinburgh Waverley Train Station |
Today was our lucky day, we were upgraded to a Volvo XC60, a well equipped SUV, most importantly with automatic transmission and GPS, unfortunately it still had to be driven from the "passenger side" of the front seat. So after being shown the car's details and controls I was on my own. It took a minute of two before I had familiarized myself with the mirrors, the GPS, the lights, the audio system, the overly energized seat heater, etc., but soon I was ready to go.
In any case I made it to the street and prepared for my first right hand turn, it's just counter-intuitive. Anyway I was on the road but still needed to find my way back to the hotel otherwise Sheila and the bags would miss out on St. Andrews. I should have started using the GPS from the start rather than the city map so my route was circuitous but in the end ta-da, there was the hotel and with a quick across traffic turn I was parked in front awaiting the bellman and luggage.
By 12:30 we were on the road, this time with full dependency on the GPS, it's darn close to essential for driving in and around cities and optimizing routing (as long as you follow the directions). Another thing we soon learned about the local GPS was just how polite the spokes-model is, saying please before directing turns and offering options when instructions have been disobeyed.
Leaving Edinburgh we came upon the newly constructed Forth Bridge.
It was somewhat confusing as people had mentioned the 4th bridge but I could only count three, one railroad trestle and the old and new highway bridges. Turns out that the bridges cross the Firth of Forth thus the name Forth Bridge actually having nothing to do with a fourth bridge. Rumor was that the Queen would be up for a ribbon cutting over the upcoming weekend, actually on the 4th of September. Unfortunately we won't be able to hang around, perhaps she can catch up with us later in September when we're down her way.
We arrived in St. Andrews by mid-afternoon and immediately checked in to the Old Course Hotel.
Our room overlooked the 17th fairway.
As it turns out, the Old Course is closed on Sundays but closed only to golfers, yes that's right only to golfers, anyone else is welcome to roam the course fairways at will, walking, jogging, with dogs or without, with kids or without, basically anyone doing almost anything but playing golf.
We walked around the local golf area before heading back to the hotel via the Jigger Inn for a brewsky. It's here that we met a 40ish husband/father state that he was the original Mr. Grumpy Pants. (That comment will only have significance to a select few, to those of us, including me that have been called "Mr Grumpy Pants".)
So after a day of walking in the footprints of golf history it was time to turn-in. St. Andrews is a classic place, maybe not a Great Pyramid or a Coliseum or even a Great Wall but still a place of historic significance in the Golf Age! (Editor's Note: The Golf Age was sometime after the Iron Age and Renaissance, not sure when it actually started.)
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