We drove onto a little town, just south of Inverness along the coastal road. It was so adorable, a little fishing town.
I guess it was low tide! No wonder why the sailors have winged keels or centerboard keels!
This boat below reminded me so much of the Krusell's boat that I spent some fun times on as a kid!
As we found all throughout Scotland, as we left one little town, or even went around the bend in a road, it was always up for grabs what we may see next. This last day, was absolutely the day of the cows!
I so enjoyed the grazing cows throughout the day, I was pleased to hope (?) that they were all milk cows and not for meat!
As the road meandered toward Edinburgh, we headed to St. Andrew's to see the Cathedral ruins there. Plus, one of my teachers, Mary Gentile, told me that we should see St. Andrews! St. Andrews is Scotland's oldest university town and is home to the famous St. Andrews Golf Course, where people come from all over the world for a round of golf. Golf is Scotland's national game. The earliest record of the game being played is 1457, when golf was banned by King James II, as he felt it was interfering with his subjects' archery practice! Mary, Queen of Scots was berated for playing golf shortly after her husband was murdered.
St. Andrews also has the Cliff and Oceanside ruins of St. Andrews Cathedral. The cathedral began being built in the 1100s and at one time was the largest building in Scotland.
We noticed that many of the gravestones had the name of the person in large font, and then the occupation in smaller font. So many gravestones were for children. One that made me particularly sad was for a man who died at 47, all four children who died from 4 to 15, and eventually, his wife and the mom of the children, who died at age 75. I cannot imagine that kind of grief. It made me wonder, was it an invasion or was it a disease? Whatever it was, only the mommy survived. 😢
Very small openings in the walls.
Umm... Yikes!??
We moved on slowly back to Edinburgh. "Matilda", our Scottish gps woman, continued to have a mind of her own with where she would bring us, ugh! She was done with us by the end of the trip and the feeling was mutual!
We arrived back to our Apex Waterloo Hotel, same as where we started. Much to our surprise, we had a suite! Lovely!
We finished this most lovely trip by walking back up the "Royal Mile", a cobblestone street, lined with restaurants and Scottish shops.
We went to my dearest stepmother's most favorite restaurant in Scotland. It sits atop the Royal Mile, just a few feet below the Edinburgh Castle. A small, but most elegant setting. Why called "The Witchery"? Back in early times, 16 or 1700s, hundreds and hundreds of "witches" we're born at the stake in this area. Yikes! After getting over that horrible thought, we dined for Phyllis and what a wonderful capstone to a fabulous trip with Sweet William!
We enjoyed this time together in Bill Scott's family homeland so very much. We are happy to go home to see our family and friends, but as we leave with wonderful memories and thought provoking experiences to last a lifetime, I must wonder... Where next?
#bucketlist #fillthepassport
Fabulous trip! I think I'll put Scotland on my bucket list!
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