Well we finally get around to adding a car to our modes of transportation. We got up kind of early to try and pick up the car as early as possible. I walked over and grabbed some cash from an ATM as we were heading into more rural areas then proceeded to the car rental shop. I got there just as they opened but my car wasn’t quite ready so we got the paperwork and payment taken care of and I waited until about 830 or so when they turned our Peugeot 3008 over to me. After attempting at least once to get in the passenger door i got myself settled and took in the odd perspective of driving from the right side seat.

I headed to the hotel to pickup Becky and our luggage and we got on the road out of Edinburgh and on to St. Andrews. We only took a couple of wrong turns out of town and soon were on the slightly higher speed highway across the Forth of Forth and heading east. A bit out of town you get back to 2 lane country roads and with the different driving perspective I had a little trouble staying in the lane properly but eventually got the hang of it and we arrived in St. Andrews. We were both looking for a restroom break and asked at a coffee shop near where we parked and they pointed us to a gem of a bookstore called Topping and Company and if you know Becky and I we love a good bookshop. They had Becky from the moment they offered her coffee in a china cup to drink while browsing. We got a couple of small books then it was time to meet our walking tour. Our tour started by the Martyr’s Monument near the golf course and the beach. The Martyr’s were 4 reformation timeframe protestants who were burned at the stake.

We then went over to the golf course itself overlooking the 18th green and took pictures and heard a little of the history.

Our next stop was the Hams Hame building which has an interesting history that is too long to repeat here but if you watch the British open coverage and see a red brick building behind the clubhouse standing out from the other sandstone buildings that is this one.

We went through the university next including the beautiful quad. William and Kate both went to St. Andrews University and we saw the coffee shop they would meet at and their first year dorm building. Apparently Netflix has been here and recently wrapped up filming their time here.

We then visited the ruins of the castle and cathedral both were destroyed during the reformation but the ruins still partially stand.

We finished at St. Mary’s college and saw where James Gregory worked and plotted the first attempt at a meridian line, 200 years before Greenwich was chosen as the official meridian line, which is shown in the pavement outside his office.

He is also famous for working closely with Newton and Leibniz on the foundations of calculus and he also wrote the first calculus textbook. After the tour finished we grabbed lunch at a pub across the street and are about to head to Pitlochry. The drive to Pitlochry was pretty uneventful but absolutely beautiful scenery as you went from kind of coastal lowland rural to the start of the lower highlands in Pitlochry. Pitlochry is mostly a tourist town serving as a central jumping off point for lots of day trip activities in central Scotland, like our trip to Balmoral tomorrow. We got to our little B&B and checked in and we got lucky with our room placement since we are only here one night as we are on the first floor right by the back door to the parking area.

This is such a cute little town and I kind of wish we had more time to stay here. I think if we come again for the Highland games, etc. we might use this as a base for at least a few days. We decided to walk the main shopping street then turned off towards the River Tummel and the Pitlochry dam. There are some great views of the lake side and the river side from the dam. We also learned (should have asked Loren) that salmon is big here and they have built a salmon ladder along the side of the dame to help the fish safely head upstream.

We also saw at least one guy fly-fishing so this might be Loren’s spot. We followed the trail back up to a suspension bridge which was on about my limit of movement for a bridge but we made it across alive.

After the loop we had worked up an appetite and stopped at a little cafe on the main strip for dinner. We are now about to turn in for the night and get up to head to Balmoral Castle tomorrow morning.