Following the footsteps of Andrew the Apostle in St Andrews Scotland

Following the footsteps of Andrew the Apostle in St Andrews Scotland

My father was a great one for appreciating the beauty of nature and history, and would tell us how lucky we are with what we have on our doorstep.

Today we are in St Andrews in Fife on the east coast of Scotland.

It is a typical winter's morning, but luckily the umbrella dod not come out of the backpack!

I have great affinity with St Andrews as it is where my maternal grandmother's family is from, and it is where I took my very first steps as a wee Edward on the West Sands.

It is not that far up the coast from us, but there are only 24 hours in a day and so many places that are close to us to visit!

I had a spot of work to do (well a progress meeting that would last an hour) but as it was on a Friday and Mrs T's day off I took her for a day out.

I love stone buildings and that includes churches, don't you find these stained glass windows fascinating. The shapes of them anyway as there is no stained glass in them anymore!

This is St Mary's parish church and just opposite the bus station. It is one of the first things tourists see and you are forever seeing people stand snapping the church from the road and getting tooted at!

The barrels of flowers give it a spring time vibe. The one thing about Fife is that there are microclimates galore.

Some of you might know that St Andrews is the home of gold, so you see it everywhere.

We will not be going near the courses today though.

They have two of these shops on the main street, ironically I find them tourist traps and never buy things from shops like this. Unless I am abroad and fall into the tourist trap overseas!

One wonderful thing about St Andrews is the amount of cobbled roads or streets that there are.

I love it, especially as I don't drive anymore so don't feel the rattling of your back as you drive over them 🤣

Embrace Life

The shop name says it all!

I particularly love the stick hooman with the great big arms on the signage over the shop!

Fudge Doughnut anyone???

If you ever want a sweet sweet treat then a fudge doughnut is your answer, I haven't had one for years.

When Mrs T pointed them out we weren't hungry or we might have been tempted to splash the £1.85 and share one!

And hope our pockets weren't picked!

Charity shopping

Mrs T is a charity shop junkie, she is one of the few women I know who don't like any shopping apart from browsing through charity shops.

I mentioned St Andrews is the home of golf, so it was no surprise to see golf balls galore priced at 10p. These will have been found in the rough or water around all the courses, I think St Andrews actually has 5 18 hole courses!

Can cyclists read?

I did chuckle at this picture.

It is a no entry for vehicle street although bicycles are allowed.

I thought it was funny that the bikes were tied up to the post and not venturing up the street where they were allowed!

St Andrews is full of nooks and crannies and alleyways.

This one had the most delightful wee garden with a bench and would make an ideal sun trap I am aure.

Opposite the bench was ...

... Mr and Mrs Motorbikes!

They did look cool tho!

This was another alley that I was instructed to take a picture of the pavement of!

Baker Lane

This was the flagstone in the middle of the pavement under the arch letting you know you were about to enter Baker Lane, and I am sure back in the day there would have been a baker perhaps more up there!

There are churches everywhere, and of course some are repurposed into all sorts of things. There are also many other gorgeous buildings that undergo refurbishment

St Andrews town hall

The town hall is an example of one that is undergoing refurbishment.

Pro Rege et Grege

Now then ... who knows their Latin?

Do you know what this means?

Answer ... For King and People

It is actually the motto of Madras College a school in st Andrews that was founded in 1833. We used to play them at rugby and it was a good day out from Edinburgh.

St Andrews coat of arms and you can see the white cross against the blue background.

Which is where you get the Scottish flag or St Andrews cross that some of you might recognise by the spire...

Dum Spiro Spero ... Cursus apri regalis

Testing your Latin, although people from South Carolina and Chicago may know the first three words...

Dum Spiro Spero

It means While I breathe, I hope

It is also the motto of South Carolina

It is of course used as a motto by people who refuse to give up until their last breath

Now then the second part ... Cursus apri regalis is totally unique to St Andrews and literally means "Course of the royal boar". It was used in the Middle Ages to describe the territory surrounding St Andrews, Scotland. The area was also known as the Boar's Raik. Thank you to Gemini for that!

Boarhills, Dunino and St Andrews Holy Trinity Church of Scotland

Gosh that is a mouthful.

Before I tell you more we are going to nip round the corner!

Hamish McHamish

unfortunately the bloody seagulls have got him!

Hamish McHamish (1999 – 11 September 2014) was a ginger cat that lived in the University town of St Andrews, on the East Coast of Fife in Scotland. He came to national and international fame after the book entitled Hamish McHamish of St Andrews: Cool Cat About Town was published.

You can find out more by clicking on The Hamish Foundation or scanning the code ... I did ;)

Hamish's view

We actually sat where that wifey was and had a banana and snickers bar while watching the video about Hamish. He would stop traffic you know!

One important thing about St Andrews is the religious significance of St Andrew the apostle. He was buried in the cathedral.

Just like Rome and Santiago de Compostela, St Andrews became a haven for pilgrims.

The cathedral or St Andrews cathedral that would the end of the Fife Pilgrim Way would have been a seriously impressive site all those hundreds ago.

This is a sneak preview as it deserves its own post...

St Andrews Cathedral and this was the one you asked about @thebighigg

Next up was one of the favourite charity shops

Cancer Research UK

Old Books anyone?

They had some quite wonderful books, but I have still got some to read.

Now this sign tickled me!

Matilda's inspiration ~ the Gin Queen of Pittenweem

Pittenweem is a small fishing village a few miles along the coast. It is the village that my grandmother moved to after my grandfather passed away.

As you know, 82 years young Matilda drinks gin and you now know where I got her inspiration from!

Now if someone was a bit closer I might have got you this mug @coquicoin , but I know I know your not crazy Super Eli 💙

St Andrews Citizen

This was the local newspaper and I was in a couple of times when I was a child playing golf on the Old Course.

The shop is no more!

Mrs T wanted a coffee and blow me could we not find a coffee shop that was open and had space.

The only chain coffee shop I will do is Cafe Nero, I refuse to goto Starcon or Costa, but unfortunately Cafe Nero was closed and the two local coffee shops were rammed!

So fluff it, across the cobbles we went and into something Central!

Cheers everyone!

Well I can't say no to a cheeky wee beer, I had to keep a Level Head for my meeting later!

This was only part of what we did in the morning, and it has made for a long post already! So I shall close and bring the second part at a later date...

And with that, we were a hop skip and a jump from home!

This post is for #wednesdaywalk which was inspired by @tattoodjay

Thanks for visiting and I hope you managed to get out for a walk this week.