Scotland- Day 6: St. Andrew's, Pitlochry, and Inverness- June 19, 2019

6:15 just felt so early this morning! However, since the bags had to be out at 6:45, it was necessary. We got them outside our door with two minutes to spare.
I checked the weather and it said it was fair with a temperature of 50 that felt like 50. That sounded chilly to me.
When we left for breakfast at 6:58, the bags were already gone. Maybe it was because it was Wednesday or just because it was so early, but we managed to get seated in the dining room itself. I had porridge with maple syrup, which seemed like a good idea on a cool day, along with berry compote and orange pieces, a banana, orange juice, and, of course, a chocolate croissant. My husband K had yogurt with granola, which he often has at home, bread, a banana and a waffle, as well as coffee. It was a good breakfast.
We washed up and grabbed our hand luggage. We were on the bus at 7:55 and it departed at 8:02. As we left Edinburgh, we got to see a bit more of the city. I also saw that my hands are so dry! It must be this climate.
As we approached the River Forth, we started to be able to see its bridges. The white bridge was the Queensferry Crossing, which we would cross. Only open since August of 2017, it is 1.7 miles long and the longest three-tower, cable-stayed bridge in the world. Then, we caught site of the Forth Bridge, which is a railroad bridge opened in 1890. It is recognized as the most famous of cantilever designs in the world and was named a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2015. As we crossed the Queensferry Crossing northbound, we could see the Forth Road Bridge to our right and the Forth Bridge beyond that. The Forth Road Bridge opened in 1964 and it is the fourth longest long span suspension bridge in the world and the longest outside of the US.

The rest of the road was unexciting and I soon dozed off. I was awakened at 9:50 by K, as we were now driving around St. Andrew's. We were shown the ruined cathedral and various other sites, before Alistair dropped us off by the famous golf course at 9:55. We only had until 11:15 and K and I wanted to see as much of the town as possible in that time. So, I ran into the shop by the golf course and bought cards and an overpriced pin, before we headed off to follow the walking tour in Rick Steves' Scotland book.
It was convenient that the walk begins at the Old Course by the ocean, since that's where we were. I'm not into golf, but K has watched it and we can appreciate the significance of where we were.

 

Across the street from the course is the Hamilton Grand, which has been a hotel and then university dorms, but now is fancy apartments. Rumor has it that Samuel L. Jackson owns one.

The walk then went through the park that was along the ocean across from the Hamilton. There is an obelisk that is the Martyrs' Monument, that honors those who died for Protestantism during the Scottish Reformation. There are also signs with interesting information.

Aquarium with the Stepping Stone Pool (concrete walls), Witches Lake beyond that, and Cliffs

Before we turned inland, I took another photo of the beach. Some of the group went seashell hunting, and, as much as I would have liked that, I didn't want to miss the town.

We made our way across the street to Gillespie Wynd, which did indeed wind its way behind houses to North Street. K posed at the entrance to show how narrow it was. He has a clarinet friend with that last name. We could peak into some of the lovely backyards. According to Rick Steves, the medieval layout of the town gave  each landowner a little of the street front and a long back garden.

Our next stop was St. Salvator's College, which is the university that everyone talks about, when they talk about St. Andrew's. This was where Prince William met Kate Middleton, his future wife, now known as Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge. Sadly, on the front of the clock tower at the entrance, you can see where the Protestants removed the statues of the saints during the Reformation.

As the sign above notes, and Rick Steves points out, students avoid stepping on the PH in the cobblestones. They mark where Patrick Hamilton was burned at the stake. He not only graduated from here, but was also a professor and the Scottish Reformation's most famous martyr. Supposedly, as he burned, he threatened any students, who stood on the spot would fail.

I thought, that we would just go on, but K wanted to see Sally's Quad, which is the heart of the university. The gate was open, so we went in. Graduation is held here in July and this is where all the students gathered to celebrate the wedding of Wills and Kate. Speaking of Prince William, the Wullie here is obviously in his honor.

We varied from the Rick Steves path to head directly for the cathedral. On the way, we passed this:

In case you can't read the sign, it says: Where Kate Met Wills...for coffee ! Cute!
I'm beginning to get really depressed by the destruction of Catholic churches that occurred during the Scottish Reformation. That didn't seem to happen in Germany. Luther even stopped them from removing all the art, because it taught the Bible stories. Knox and his ilk were relentless in wiping out signs of Catholicism.
St Andrews Cathedral, built in 1158, was the center of Catholicism in Scotland. St. Rule had received directions in a dream to bring the relics of St. Andrew north out of Constantinople. When the ship wrecked here, it was clear that this was the place. Pilgrimages were made here like the ones to St. James' relics at Santiago de Compostela, Spain. St. Andrew is the patron saint of Scotland, and his cross is the white X in the blue field of the Scottish flag. In turn, when Scotland united with England, the X appeared on the British flag.
When the Catholic Mass was outlawed in Scotland, the cathedral was abandoned and fell into disrepair. The decorations were removed from inside and the roof was removed to use its lead. Overtime, the locals  removed the stones that fell to use to build their homes. Weather and a fire did not help.
We did not have a lot of time to take photos. The graveyard is post-Reformation Protestant. There are signs that tell you what used to be there. The tower is the tower of St. Rule. You can see in one photo the base of one of the giant columns in what had been the nave. Even in ruins, it is beautiful.

By now, I could have used a restroom, but none was in sight. I did find the building for buying tickets to go in the museum of the cathedral. I didn't see a restroom, but I did ask the woman at the desk the easiest way to reach The Scores, which seemed to be the fastest path back to the bus. She showed me a shortcut to it on her map, but could not give it to me. So, I memorized it and then went off to find K.
The shortcut did indeed get us to The Scores quickly, which was good, as our time was running out to get back to the bus. The street ran along the sea cliff. This led past the St. Andrews Castle, which had once been the home of the bishops, archbishops, and cardinals of the city. It, too, is a casualty of the Scottish Reformation.

We passed a building or two associated with the university and actually saw the Catholic church of the town, St. James. The current structure was built in 1910.

The Scores really made for a lovely rush back and warm, what with the hurrying. K ducked into the British Golf Museum to use their restroom, but I was really uncomfortable with the concept and didn't want to climb stairs. As I neared the coach, I saw Roseanne, our guide, and confirmed that there were public restrooms just down the street at the beach. It cost 30 pence to open the door and the restroom was nothing to write home about.
We departed promptly at 11:15. The Weather Channel app said that it was sunny and 61 degrees. In 25 minutes, we were crossing the Firth of Tay and seeing Dundee. We didn't stop, but we could see the RRS Discovery (Royal Research Ship), the Victoria & Albert Museum, and even another Wullie. (Being in the front of the bus today had its advantages.)

In another hour, we reached Pitlochry. As we drove into the small town, Roseanne pointed out the dam and its salmon ladder. She also told us about heather gems, which are made from all the parts of a heather plant. She pointed out the factory, where they are made, but it turned out to be at the bottom of the hill that was the main street. We parked in the coach part of the large parking lot at 12:42 and had to be back at 2:30. That left no time for going all the way down there, if we were going to eat.
As we reached the main street, I was surprised, at first, to see the building in the picture below. But, then I remembered that John Muir was actually Scottish. It's just that you associate him with places like Yosemite.

We felt that we really didn't have a lot of time to hunt for a lunch place, if we were going to see any of the town. So, at 12:55, we walked into Pasha Restaurant, which has Turkish and Mediterranean food. We were seated at the front window, which let us watch the tourist comings and goings. My Diet Coke was Ł2.50 and I ordered the lunch special of Hummus and Guvech (lamb) for Ł12.95. K's coffee was Ł2.70 and his Brown Bread, Chicken and Mayo Sandwich was Ł5.25. We had to wait a bit for the food. I loved the bread that came with it for the hummus. We split the two meals and I enjoyed both of them, as did K. It was not a cheap lunch, as with tip, it came to Ł25.40.

At 1:45, we left to explore the town, or at least this street, which seemed to be most of the town.

We did some shopping, but I didn't see the heather gems in the stores. Perhaps, the factory keeps them for their own shop. We found a craft store off on a side area and it was interesting to check it out. There was a charming stream near The Old Mill restaurant. Also near that was a really cool sculpture/ flower display that was part of the Pitlochry in Bloom Project and sponsored by Bank of Scotland. The restroom in that area cost 50 pence.

When the bus left at 2:32, it was only 2 minutes late. We are doing pretty well at sticking to the assigned times! It was good that we left when we did, because, as we drove out of town, it began to rain. We were to drive through the Cairngorms, a mountain range here in eastern Scotland. By 3:05, we were officially in the Scottish Highlands. The scenery was really quite pretty and, at times, dramatic.

At 4:20, we arrived at the Mercure Hotel, our home for the next two nights in Inverness. In fact, its back door, where we arrived, was just across the road from the River Ness, as in Loch Ness, from which it flows. It took a few minutes to get keys and room assignments.
When we got to Room 301, which was the first down the hall after the elevators, I quickly found out that the only outlets were at the desk. I thought that I would have to sleep at the foot of the bed to make the CPAP work, but K showed me that we could use the only chair in the room to hold the machine closer to the head of the bed and take advantage of its longish cord. I was glad that I brought disposable washcloths, since there were none in the bathroom. I hope the Hiltons didn't spoil us for the rest of the trip! We did have a pretty good view of the river, but the window would not open to be able to take a good photo.

We had time before the 7:30 dinner. So, after settling in  a bit, we left at 5:25 to take the walk in the Rick Steves book and to shop.
We headed out the back door of the hotel to walk along the River Ness first. The views this evening were really quite impressive. I was also amazed at how clear the water was and that the river wasn't very deep, at least not here.

 We walked on the sidewalk along the river down to the bridge. We crossed the street going over the bridge to be able to be on the far side of the bridge. From here, we had quite a nice view of Inverness Castle up on the hill. It is now a courthouse. We didn't climb up there to get a view nor to visit the exhibits in it. We looked down the river from here and there didn't seem to be much in the way of buildings down there.

 We turned back to go up the High Street. We came across some shops, where we bought postcards, pins, etc. I even found some nice pieces of jewelry with heather gems. I love the colors. I found a baseball cap with Slàinte on it, that I bought, because I was getting tired of the sun in my eyes. I hadn't brought a hat from home, because I'd been expecting more rain and wind.
We noticed there were a lot of signs around with Gaelic, as well as the usual English. Rick Steves says that the language symbolizes the strength of the Highlands. I just like seeing people hang onto their language.

We made our way up to the City Hall, which was built in 1852 in Neo-Gothic style. Of interest is the old-style Inverness Burgh coat of arms carved into the building, which show the crucified Christ between a dromedary and an elephant. The Latin on it has been translated as "concord and fidelity".

Across the street, a former civic leader, who'd grown tired of the council members being drunkards, had Bible verses inscribed into his wall.

Fun fact:  Caledonia is the name the ancient Romes gave to Scotland.
We went down Church Street, where other shops were open, that we checked out. We also looked at the amazing art installation called Earthquake, which  commemorates the 1816 quake that hit the town. Who knew?

We went into the Victorian Market, but there wasn't much in there. I did notice the newer coat of arms in the upper left quadrant of the circular window there.

We simply could not find the oldest house in town, Abertarff House.  It was easier to find Dunbar's Hospital, which was built in 1668 by Alexander Dunbar as a poor folks' home. The walls are four feet thick!

I got very excited, when we discovered a quilt store. It was closed, of course, but it had fabric with the Scottish thistle on it in the window. There was no sign giving the opening times, unfortunately. K said that maybe they'd be open, when we got back from tomorrow's excursion. Fingers crossed!
We climbed the steps up to the Old High Church's churchyard. The sign indicated that it was Church of Scotland and its full name was Old High St. Stephen's. It dates from the 11th century. The only service on Sunday is at 11:15, which struck me as an odd time, but I remembered that the Catholic churches in the Highlands that I found online before the trip had services at 10. So, maybe it's a thing.
Rick Steves said that this had probably been a pagan holy site before early Christians built a church here. He noted that St. Columba came from Ireland in the sixth century to bring Christianity to the area.
We found an old fancy family burial area off in a corner and also the war memorial. World War I took the lives of a lot of soldiers from this area. The WWII list is mercifully shorter. We walked around to the front to look at the small door at about the second floor level that has no way to access it. Rick Steves explained that before the castle was there for protection, this tower was where townspeople could go, when the city was under attack. They'd use a ladder to get up there and put it up, once all were inside. After the Battle of Culloden, the church was used as a prison for Jacobites and executions were done in the courtyard. So not what a church is about.

Steves said that the church is on a bluff. Perhaps it once was a bluff, now it just seems like a steep, flat-topped hill beside a street that is beside the river. Regardless, from there, we could see another Wullie down near the river. We had to go down to take his picture and found out he was meant to represent a Highland cow, which are hairier than your normal cow. The river was looking dramatic upstream. I'd also figured out where one of the two Catholic churches happened to be across the river. And, as a bonus, we found this version of a pedestrian light. I feel like the guy is expressing frustration at waiting.

We were now just up the street from where we'd started. We were back in the room by 6:55. We were supposed to meet in the bar to pick up our wine and mingle at 7, but we were a little late. Dinner was at 7:30 in the hotel dining room.
For my appetizer, I chose chicken satay skewers with sweet chili sauce and salad, which turned out to be tasty. K chose carrot and butter bean soup, and he liked it. For the main course, I had pork loin, mixed vegetables, a little bit of a potato thing, and cauliflower, plus a roll. K's plate was the same, but his meat was chicken. We split the two delicious desserts: warm chocolate brownie with Chantilly cream and a slice of apple and blackberry pie with custard. Unfortunately, I did not get the names of the people we were sitting with at dinner. I need to work on doing that.

The phone says that I walked 11,055 steps for a total of 3.7 miles. It also says that I walked up four floors, and, for the life of me, I don't know where that would have been.