Holiday in Fife: Day 3: St Andrews

Today we walked along the beach at St Andrews - acres of yellow sand bounded by the sea on one side and golf courses on the other.

We always enjoy visiting this town. It has beautiful old buildings, lovely shops and restaurants and you can walk around it easily. There are lots of other things to do, such as visits to the:- botanical garden, castle, cathedral ruins, golf museum and university museum.

Lunch was at the dog-friendly Byre Theatre Cafe, where we had a very tasty lunch (GF mushroom salad for me and vegetarian platter with cheese, olives, bread, hummus, roasted tomatoes and peppers, etc, for Rob).

We spotted the poster above in the Theatre Cafe and it reminded us of a certain little dog of our acquaintance. He is due for a fur cut in a few weeks time so he won't be quite so 'Hairy Maclary' any more!

We bought some delicious blue cheese, and bread from IJ Mellis and gorgeous (but outrageously expensive - £1.40 each!) chocolates from Iain Burnett Highland Chocolatier. Cakes from Fisher and Donaldson - a GF meringue for me and a coffee tower for Rob. All the food groups covered!

Then it was back to the Crail Posthouse for a relaxing read by the fire!

Holiday in Fife: Day Three

Thursday 20 September 2012

St Andrews
Anstruther

It was due to be our only cloudy/rainy day of the holiday, so we headed for St Andrews. It is a charming small city, famed for its University (the third oldest in the English speaking world) and for being the 'home of golf'. The famous Old Course dates back to medieval times.

Brock running at top speed. He was over by the jogger a second ago!

Brock enjoyed his walk on the West Sands Beach: a huge, empty expanse of sand backed by a narrow band of sand dunes. After which, Brock, had a sleep (or, more likely, a good bark) in the car, while Rob and I went off to explore the town. There are a good range of small shops, cafes and restaurants to browse.

We bought some delicious cakes from Fisher and Donaldson; and some handmade bread, mature Ayrshire cheddar and spicy pumpkin chutney from a deli. I had fun spending a birthday gift voucher in The Body Shop, before we had lunch in a branch of Bella Italia.

Rob had Pasta Norma (wholewheat rigatoni, roasted aubergines and garlic in a cherry tomato sauce, with fresh basil and baby mozzarella). I had a 'special' of salad leaves topped with bruschetta with goats' cheese, and red pepper tapenade. There were sadly no gluten-free, vegetarian options. The food was pretty good and it is a nice little restaurant with a view over a busy street. The bill with two mineral waters came to £21.15.

The rain had started in earnest on the drive back to the accommodation, so we decided to have a rest before venturing out into Anstruther later. Anstruther has a lovely harbour and marina, restaurants, shops and two very small, sandy beach areas. Tourist attractions in the area include The Scottish Fisheries Museum and Scotland's Secret Bunker (a large, underground bunker, built in case of nuclear war, and hidden beneath an ordinary-looking small house.)