St Mary's Together

We spent the afternoon with Dorian. He is a student of St Mary's College, the Divinity School founded in the 1530's. I (Sheelagh) also went to St Mary's( in Halifax) so the lad is following in my footsteps! The Divinity undergrads wear black gowns whereas the rest of St Andrew's undergrads wear red gowns. Also, the Divinity students are not allowed to step on the initials in the sidewalk that mark the spot where a fellow Divinity student was burned at the stake. To do so means they will fail their exams.

If they are suffering from writer's block, they are to walk 3 times around the holm oak in the quad. And so the legends go from century to century.

 We went to evensong with Dorian and then took him home. This time, we could go inside. The downstairs is large with a living room, dining room, eat in kitchen and large utility room. It's a 20 minute walk to college. He has a job in a coffee shop and has 2 days work under his belt. So far, it's been mostly washing dishes but he has his sights set on the World Barista Competition.

 Before we headed off to St Andrew's, the four of us went for Sunday roast lunch at the Anstruther golf course - a great British tradition. We didn't take James Pringle Onion with us, fearing for his life if the chef caught sight of him.

 John spent the afternoon at the Scottish fishery museum while Von repacked their stuff, trying to find room for all the pressies she's bought. Christmas will come early down under.

A Man Gave Me An Onion

Today was our first whole day in Anstruther, pronounced ENSTER, so of course we left. We had a great sleep in this lovely house that Von found for us here. After a leisurely breakfast, we decided to drive over to St. Andrews, we'd drop off and John and Von would go on to Dundee where they could attend the Discovery Display. This is a display of the ship Discovery that Scott used to go to the Antarctic. John, who is a conservator in Canberra worked on the Scott base in the Antarctic and had a wonderful time connecting things in the display with his experiences.

Sheelagh and I had a lovely day mooching around St Andrews until Dorian finished work. Sheelagh spotted a sign to the annual Gardening Show at the city hall so we toddled along expecting a quick 15 miutes. Instead we were shocked to find a huge display of flowers and vegetables, art and baking. We were marvelling at the size of the vegetables and hearing how the seeds were developed over decades, and some people slept with their vegetabes, when we met Jim from Dundee. He had come in second in the vegetable arrangements. "So Jim," says I. "What does an onion that size taste like?"

"Well George," says Jim from Dundee. "If you stay to the end I'll gve you one." Now what person in their right mind would turn down an onion the size of a ten pin bowling ball? So we sat through all the trophies for flowers, baking etc etc and I got an onion!!!

Then the Kemister came back and we met up with Dorian and went out for supper. Then we walked over to St Mary's College which is the divinity college and St Salvator Quad, the two parts of the University where Dorian takes his classes. It was great to see where he spends his days.

After dropping him at his place, but not going in because he wasn't ready for his Mum to see his room, we made our way back to Anstruther.

Goodbye Mistle Thrush

We said farewell to our narrowboat this morning. George had brought us through the Falkirk Wheel this time. We had to enter the box with a tour vessel carrying high school students on a field trip. George was afraid of being jeered at and so was very tense. He came through with nary a jeer - although John and I were concerned at the last lock when George came within an inch of hitting the gates. George said our screams hurt his feelings very much.

We had a lovely drive along the Fife tourist route from Falkirk to Anstruther where we are based for the next couple of days. We stopped for a look around the painfully pretty village of Culross and enjoyed fish and chips in Anstruther, the best place in Scotland to have the dish according to a number of sources. We have to agree with the sources.

Pictures to go with previous post

Back on the Canal Again

We left Edinburgh this morning having experienced the lowest low in 30 years. Don't quite know what that means but it sounds impressive. When we stopped at the Bridge Inn at Ratho for lunch (2 enthusiastic thumbs up, if anybody is coming this way) we saw in the paper that alot of the country had suffered a severe battering. As we putt-putted west, the cloud began to lift.
George had a rough day. Whilst getting us underway this morning in the rain and the wind, his feet went from under him and he landed heavily on his left elbow. Trying to tie up at one point this afternoon, his left foot went into the canal. And to top it all off, his good friend, John, made a disparaging comment about George's hands! It was all too much and we have had to retire to a lovely canal side bistro for some hot fudge cake and ice cream.
Last night, George and I went to a play called the Guid Sisters at the Lyceum Theatre. It's a French Canadian play by Michel Trembly that had been translated into broad Scots. We couldn't understand the accent in alot of places and found it odd that the director had kept the setting in Quebec and all the French names. It should have been set in the tenaments of Glasgow. On the plus side, I now qualify for the concession ticket prices as well.
We're 10 miles away from the Falkirk Wheel and will have an easy run in the morning. I'm going to feed the Blogmaster drugs tonight and he should be back on the net tomorrow.

Meanwhile, I'll leave you with one of my favourite pictures. You've heard of the one armed paper hanger - well, this fountain was carved by the one armed stone mason. Pretty impressive work, I thought. The young couple politely declined to move for my picture - so there they are.

Parliament and Pig Meat

Pouring rain in Edinburgh. The night in the boat was a bit noisy with the wind causing some clattering around on the roof. We have a mop, a barge pole and a plank to get to the bank from the boat. These items are on the roof of the boat and we were worried that they would be blown away. The wind was quite strong, and the rain was coming down in sheets at times.

We toddled off to the National Library to do the last blog and then had Lunch. I went to a place called Oink. They roast a whole pig on a farm somewhere and then lay it out in the front window and serve it as pulled pork sandwiches through the day. They are wonderful. Sheelagh went to the St. Giles Cafe for her prissy little bowl of soup. Ha!!!

After lunch we braved the rain down to the Scottish Parliament. It is 8 years old and very beautiful. Lots of metal and light oak. We saw the debate chamber and the outside basically, but it was interesting. Unlike the one in Ottawa, it is set up with everyone facing the speaker. The lady said it was to make it less confrontational. I found this hilarious in Scotland of all places.

Then Shush went to tour the Holyrood Palace and I wandered through some shops and dropped in at the library again and then home to the boat. The rain continued through the night.

Making It In To Edinburgh

The last day before Edinburgh was very easy. We had pulled up along the canal and used the bank spikes to tie up and we had a quiet night. Before that we had passed beside some rather rough looking buildings and had some of the local neds fooling around, so we were glad to get to a secure site.

After a leisurely breakfast we putted away and enjoyed ANOTHER! Sunny day. We crossed the Almond Aqueduct and through some leafy passages, but no more charming villages.

As we approached Edinburgh everything slowed down and more boats were moving about. At 20 minutes out we had to call the Leamington Lift Bridge to let them know we were going to pass through. When we arrived, the bridge was up and we passed under into the Edinburgh Quay.

This is a very nice set of docks and it’s surrounded by restaurants. It is a locked area and, although it’s right in the heart of the city, it is secure. The man in charge was very nice and gave us permission to stay as long as we wanted. At the high season you can only stay for 3 hours or overnight if you come in late, so we are very fortunate to get downtown accommodation for free.

We went for a stroll along Princes Street, through a beautiful Garden and then up to the Royal Mile. Von is looking for her family tartan. She’s been told it’s very obscure and no one would stock it. As Von comes from a long line of convicts, we can understand that prison tartan might be scarce! Then John and Von went up to Holyrood Park, or Arthur’s Seat. We went to a beautiful Baroque concert in St Giles Church. We all managed to get back to the boat without much trouble. A great day.

Linlithgow I Think

We had a great first night on the Mistle Thrush. We made it through the Falkirk wheel. John's knees were shaking he said. If you are not familiar with this wonder of engineering, google Falkirk Wheel and see. It lifts you and your boat up to a higher level of canal. It replaced 13 locks I think the guy said.

We stopped for lunch in this Linlithgow place where Mary Queen of Scots was born. This is the castle where her parents lived.

Well we have to get back to the boat. Talk later.