We spent four days in St. Andrews at the University. Murray arranged a family room that was a huge space at the top of a spiral staircase in an old stone turret. It was a great room and included a full Scottish breakfast every morning! Serious dieting when we get home.
Our first day, we took advantage of the 3rd day of our rail ticket and took the train to Aberdeen. It was a cool, grey, wet day so the granite city showed its North Sea character. We were all a bit road weary (or rail weary) so headed back to St. Andrews to catch a soccer game at the local pub. The next morning, Murray and I walked into town, checked out the Cathedral ruins and walked around the old harbour. It's a lovely city, wild and beautiful. In the afternoon, we all walked a section of the Fife Coastal path. What a beautiful part of the world! We passed an amazing piece of rock, through a field of cows and came to a picturesque coastal town where we caught the bus back to our car.
Our last day, we decided to drive into Edinburgh to give us more time to explore while in Stirling, our next stop. Murray and Ben headed to the Royal Mile and The Whiskey Experience while Isaac and I toured the decomissioned Britannia. I was impressed with the understated elegance of the Britannia and the fact that it was kept in such incredible condition but not modernized. Interesting to see how royalty lives.

York

The decision to visit York came after much deliberation about how to best travel from London to Edinburgh. We explored the options: Car? Too long a journey. Train? Expensive for the 4 of us. Plane? Also too expensive with our luggage. Murray decided to look into a BritRail pass and it was much more cost effective than regular fare on a fast train. To make full use of the 3 day pass we decided to stop in York to break up the journey and give us the opportunity to visit another English city.
Who knew that the biggest horse race of the year was to take place that same day and York would be flooded with visitors taking in the race and the party that went on throughout the night? Obviously not us!! We spent a small fortune on one of the remaining hotel rooms in the city (negating most of the savings from the Rail Pass), but enjoyed our visit to York nonetheless. It was fun to watch people getting on the train at the stops near York decked out in their finest. I haven't seen that number of fastenators since watching the last royal wedding!
We walked along the wall of the old city, took late lunch in a pub, participated in Evensong at the Cathedral, and then tried to walk back to our hotel in a downpour complete with thunder and lightning. We finally ducked into another pub for a pint and to wait out the storm. The next morning, Murray and I woke early to get in a final walk around part of the city before a full English breakfast and then the train to Edinburgh. York is a beautiful city!

London Photos

Day Four: Museums

London Photos

Day Three: Harry Potter Tour and London Eye