Hey friends! Welcome back today I’m recapping our day trip to St. Andrews, Scotland. In case you missed our time in Edinburgh, you can read about it here and here.
On our second day in Scotland, we took the train to St. Andrews. This was one of the things I was the most excited about doing in Scotland! We took the train from Waverly Station which was only a few blocks from our hotel and left the station every half hour. We didn’t buy tickets in advance because we wanted to sleep in a bit after our busy travel day. The train took about an hour and then we took a cab to downtown St. Andrews. There is a bus that takes you there as well, but it only takes cash or touchless payment and we didn’t have any of those. So make sure you bring some cash to St. Andrews! Also – most places don’t take American Express cards in Scotland so keep that in mind 🙂
Our first priority after coffee was seeing the famous St. Andrews Golf Course. We walked there from the little town and sat with our coffee and watched people playing the last hole. The course is open to the public when the pros aren’t playing. One day I’d like to go back and play the course!
Jon and I got our picture on the famous bridge and it’s one of my favorite pictures from the trip.
For lunch, we walked back into town to North Point Café. This is where William and Kate had their first date. I got a spicy chicken sandwich and Jon got the chilli pesto sandwich as well.
We walked back through St. Andrews University afterwards and is was such a beautiful campus!
The Cathedral on campus was open so we walked through, and it was gorgeous.
Afterwards, we walked to explore St. Andrews Castle. This castle is pretty ruined, but it was so pretty even while it was drizzling outside. I loved seeing the ocean in the background.
We got to go through an old mine in the castle that was a little claustrophobic and freaky. This mine was built for intruders to get inside the castle from outside the walls.
Jon and I love exploring old castles 🙂
Afterwards, we walked to the pier and stared out into the ocean with no shore in sight.
We stopped for a treat at Janetta’s Gelateria (recommended by my third-grade teacher) and it was amazing! I got the snickers and Oreo in a waffle cone. Jon got snickers and peanut butter Oreo.
We walked around the town a bit before taking the train back to Edinburgh.
We had such a great day in St. Andrews, it was the perfect day trip from Edinburgh!
So glad you liked the gelato shop. We thought it was the best we had in the British Isles. i spoke with the owner for quite a while. During .W.W.II. her parents (immigrants from Italy) had to leave Scotland. (Our friend who was born and raised in Scotland) said they did not just leave but were sent to an internment camp. Their young daughter was 13 and not required to leave so she stayed and ran the shop for the duration of the war until her parents were allowed to return to St. Andrews. She was an amazing person to talk to. This was 14 years ago.