Four Firths Cross the Firth of Forth...

May 28, 2012

We checked the weather and it is supposed to be overcast and rainy in Edinburgh today, so we are heading up to St. Andrews in the kingdom of Fife.  The great thing about this is that we get to cross the Firth of Forth.   I overheard some Scotsman explaining it to someone and I thought he said that Firth meant “Rubbery Ashtray”…  I looked at David and said “What???”  I certainly don’t want a name that means rubbery ashtray…  What the guy actually said was “River Estuary” Hahahahaha…  I am still laughing J

We set off for St. Andrews and crossed the Firth of Forth on the Forth Road Bridge, isn’t it lovely???

  

More beautiful drive… we took the coastal route, but you wouldn’t know it from my pictures because I was too busy looking out the window…

  

When we arrived, we parked really close to the 18^th hole at St. Andrew’s… 

We walked through town seeing the sites and had a good laugh at this one…

This is St. Salvator's Chapel (1450) part of St. Salvator's College which is part of St. Andrews university.

And St. Andrew's Castle (12th century) remains…

This is Castle Sands.  The sea here was once called "Witches' Lake" because of all the women and men pushed off the cliff on suspicion of witchcraft.

Then we went to the remains of St. Andrew’s Cathedral…  St. Andrew is the patron saint of Scotland.  I learned that the white X or cross on the Scottish Flag is to represent the cross that St. Andrew was crucified upon.  He did not think himself worthy of being crucified in the same manner as Jesus, and thus chose this cross.  The remains of the cathedral make it feel like the place was enormous.

After lunch, the weather was so lovely that we decided to spend the remainder of our time there at the beach.  This is the same beach where Chariots of Fire was filmed.  The water was surprisingly warm.

When we drove back to Edinburgh, it was fogged in, overcast and rainy…  Again we feel that we have been so blessed with incredible weather when it is probably the only time I will ever get to visit these places.  Another superb day.

~Mary