St Andrews

Bit of an epic experience today. We left Edinburgh bright and early, with nowhere near enough sleep, and after a pit stop to get ourselves caffeinated, we headed further north, deeper into Scotland. We made a little stop on a country road with a little bit of a view of farmland and a lake, Vela had a nap and Nathan chilled out reading a book.

With Vela feeling a little fresher, we popped down into the town, Falkland, and visited the golf course. The clubhouse was open so we had a couple of hot rolls for lunch, getting our first taste of haggis in the process. Honestly, not too bad and full of flavour. We made arrangements with the golf club to stop in tomorrow and play 9 holes on our way back, so looking forward to that!

We continued on to St Andrews, and after getting our hands on some coins for parking, we got our first look at the home of golf, the Old Course. Not going to lie, it was a pretty surreal experience. On Sunday's they close the Old Course and it's open to the public to go for a walk. We were experiencing some typical Scottish weather - cold, wet and windy - so we just walked to the Swilcan Bridge for a quick photo before finding shelter at the nearby Dunvegan pub. The pub is iconic, and legend has it that Ernie Els was the first to hit a ball off the flagstones outside the pub to the 18th green on the old course at 4am, a feat which has been repeated at least once in recent history. The photos and golfing memorabilia inside the pub were pretty amazing, so we settled in with a pint of their local stout and watched a bit of the US Open on the telly.

About an hour and a half spent hiding from the weather and it had cleared up outside, so we went for another foray into the Old Course. This time we walked a bit further to check out the famous 17th tee box, where you're required to hit your tee shot over the hotel to reach the fairway. We investigated some of the bunkers and fairways before we made our way back into town.

Time for another pub for a bite to eat, being Sunday we had to get a Sunday roast before leaving the UK. So we split a pork roast and a beef roast between us, which each came with giant Yorkshire puddings and an assortment of delicious roast veggies.Read more