Scotland #4 Edinburgh – St. Andrews – Dundee – Stonehaven

A cloudy day today.

We headed out to St. Andrews, birthplace of golf. The West Shore of St. Andrews is where they shot the running scene on Chariots of Fire, but I didn’t go there.

I headed to the East Shore instead. And walked toward the St. Andrew’s Cathedral and St. Andrew’s Castle.

Walked into town to try B. Janettas ice cream. Award winning, supposedly. I thought it was quite good. The Maple Walnut is one of the best I’ve tasted. A lot of ice cream makers are unable to capture the slightly musky flavour of maple. They didn’t fail. I had the orange and marscapone and the chocolate peanut butter. But I didn’t really taste the peanut butter.

Then headed to meet my cousin in Dundee and spent a few hours with her. By this time it was warming up. The skies were getting clear and blue. It actually got hot.

My cousin made a nice Scottish soup – ham and lentils. It was good. Then she got some “dim sum” from Marks and Spencer. Made in Vietnam, it was actually pretty good for factory produced food.

In Dundee I saw a “TKMaxx” in exactly the same font as TJMaxx. I also found out that Adsa is owned by Walmart.

We took the coastal route. Well, we’d been on the coastal road most of the way outside of Edinburgh and saw sheep, Highland cows, horses and fields of gold, red and green.

Headed off toward Dunnottar Castle and had a good walk around. It only has one way of access. Crown jewels of Scotland were successfully defended here.

When researching this trip, I kept reading about a kissing gate. This is a kissing gate:

Ended up staying in Stonehaven. Quite a little town. Had trouble finding a place to stay. Ended up at a B&B only with the first B. The second B would not be provided. Okay by us.

Had fish and chip dinner at the Bay Fish and Chips in Stonehaven. The owners have received Young Frier of the Year awards. Well deserved. The batter was crisp, the mushy peas were flavourful – best I’ve tasted this whole trip. The coleslaw had way too much mayonnaise and should be avoided.  We also had the special – a particular shrimp that was sweet and tasty – languostines.