Spring Break in Scotland: The Coast & Countryside

On Friday morning, we loaded into the car and headed out of Edinburgh without much of a plan. We had heard about St. Andrews, a seaside town on the east coast of Scotland, less than two hours from Edinburgh. We pointed the car in that direction, heading out of the city over the Queensferry Crossing bridge, one of the Forth Bridges – three side-by-side bridges built in three different centuries to cross the Firth of Forth.

St. Andrews is known for a few things: its seaside castle, the ruined cathedral, being the home of golf and of course, the University of St. Andrews where Prince William and Duchess Catherine met and fell in love. (No one else in my family seemed to care about that fact.)

We arrived in St. Andrews and parked in the middle of town. It was a sunny day and warm despite the breeze, and the town was bustling with activity. We grabbed more burgers to refuel and started walking east toward the sea, coming to the cathedral. The St. Andrews Cathedral was built in 1158, as the home of the Roman Catholic diocese in Scotland. During the Scotland Reformation in the 16^thcentury, Catholic mass was banned and the cathedral was abandoned and fell into ruin. It is now a historical site and most of it is free to walk through.

The cathedral offers a stunning view, remnants of what must have been a grand church on the banks of the North Sea. The boys used the space to run and explore. There is still the remaining stonework of the front of the cathedral and tower to the back, framing the space of the interior, near the cemetery. We walked through the cathedral and up the shoreline, making our way to the St. Andrews Castle.

As we walked along the seaside path, we could see the castle grounds jutting out into the sea, and we examined the exterior, interested but not quite “wowed.” We arrived to the castle and stepped inside to get postcards, candy and possibly use the toilet. I asked the boys if they wanted to tour the castle, but they weren’t that interested. However, this meant we were denied the toilet. Our purchase of two lollipops apparently wasn’t enough to sway them.

We carried on, walking past several of the university buildings and taking in the city. Bennett had one thing on his mind – playing football on the beach. We had purposefully left the schedule open this day and I was trying my best to not worry about seeing ALL THE THINGS. We ended up at a section of the coast that offered a beach, near the famous Old Course golf course. There is an aquarium nearby, but we decided to enjoy the weather and walk along the beach instead.

Nathaniel played, Bennett and Tim kicked the ball back and forth, dogs chased, a windsurfer surfed, families strolled. After a few hours, it was time to head to our lodging. We left St. Andrews, surely not enjoying all of the activities and scenery it had to offer, but with a fond appreciation.

Our cottage was inland quite a ways, through the windy roads of the Scottish countryside. As we pulled in, we discovered it was a more expansive operation, with several cottages and cabins on what looked like a working farm. There were goats and llamas and sheep and cows. We unpacked and settled in for the evening, mostly enjoying the main reason I had booked there: the hot tub. It did not disappoint and the boys thought it was so fun to relax, run out into the cold, and run back into the heat. The surrounding view was beautiful.

The next day I woke to rain and an ill-looking Tim. “Um, are you all right?” I said, hopeful maybe the two Coronas he drank the night before somehow really affected him. “No,” he said, the victim of either something we ate or a 24-hour bug. I told him to go back to bed and made the boys breakfast. As they watched cartoons, I started to slightly panic. Tim was miserable and needed to rest so I had to get the boys out. The rain was pouring down and I really had no idea where to go. Google/Trip Advisor/Mumsnet to the rescue!

We found our answer in the nearby city of Dundee and the RRS Discovery, a wooden ship that made a research expedition to Antarctica in 1901. It was a great activity for the day and the boys enjoyed it. We started at the little museum, which offered a film and explorer packs for the boys that had them searching and hunting for clues. We learned about how the Discovery ship was built in Dundee, how they prepared for the Antarctic expedition, and all of the things that went right and wrong during their time there.

Then, we headed out to the ship. The boys ran around the top, turning the large steering wheel and ringing the bell. Down below, we couldn’t believe how much space there was. Several levels of machinery and equipment rooms, where the boiler and coal were housed, research labs, storage rooms, the kitchen, the bare-bones accommodations of the crew, and the nicer and larger rooms and shared spaces for the officers.

We even got to meet Dorothy, the resident, um…skeleton of the ship? A man who worked there brought her out and let the boys enter the captain’s room to take a look and pose with her. It was sweet and fun and totally confused the boys. I had to answer a lot of questions about who Dorothy was and why she died on the ship and why her skeleton was there, but if it wasn’t real then why? And I had not the answers to any of that besides, “Just for fun.”

We ended in the gift shop where the boys hemmed and hawed about what tiny souvenir they should get with the tiny max pound amount I gave them. We then walked away from the docks of the river and into Dundee, looking for food. I struggled finding a place to eat that sounded good to them, and me, and was kid-friendly. There was one pub that was too much of a bar. One child wanted pizza, the other didn’t. One place looked great but there were no tables available for quite a while. One place we walked into and the boys decided they didn’t like the sandwiches because they were too fancy, argh.

After an agonizing period of time and walking and on the verge of true hangry-ness, we found a cute café where we had a nice lunch and rested our weary feet. We even picked up some carrot cake to go, for Daddy. (I think we had a hunch that he still wasn’t feeling good and we would get to eat it in the end, but it made us feel charitable.)

After our adventure out, we headed back to the cottage to check on Tim and play. Because it was a larger property, it had laundry facilities, a children’s play area and also offered a selection of fine board games and DVDs, mostly from the 1980s and 90s. After some play time and a visit to the goats, we we went to select a movie for the evening.

The boys decided that The Muppets From Space was it. (It was their second choice after a VERY disappointing discovery that the movie with the Garfield cover wasn’t that movie at all…that doesn’t happen with Netflix I suppose.) Kids today will never know the struggle. The kids found it mostly funny, and I kept my eyes peeled for random cameos from 90s D-list celebrities while rolling my eyes at the humor.

We ended the night in the hot tub watching Netflix. And by we, I mean me. Tim was back in bed and the boys were asleep, but I wasn’t about to let the warm bubbles pass me by. I sat out there, glass of wine in hand and iPad teetering precariously on the side, and enjoyed the silence. Then I heard a noise and looking out into the dark, vast expanse of the countryside with who knows lurking, I decided to call it a night.

Tim was thankfully feeling better the next morning and after cleaning and packing, we decided to take a quick walk in the woods surrounding the cottage. We had a long drive ahead and the countryside was so pretty, even if it was a cool morning. We carefully avoided any snails (so many snails and slugs here, shudder) and walked for about an hour. Nate got close and personal with the llamas.

As we headed out, I helpfully told Tim that I had read in the cottage’s welcome pack that there was a little shop in the nearby town that had chocolate donuts and coffee, so we of course stopped by for a hit of sugar and caffeine. I was envisioning a true glazed with chocolate or even chocolate cake donut, per America, which was not what we got. They were donut-esque, more eclairs filled with lots of sugary buttercream. It was no Cranky Al’s – our fave – but it would do. Traveling is all about discovering new things, right? With muddy boots, tired feet and visions of sugary donuts and a return trip in our head, we left beautiful Scotland.