After the Cathedral and the Castle, Stan and I wandered St. Andrews, and it is
adorable!
First thing I noticed is that you have to love a town who's bookstore is the gorgeous centerpiece,
and whose doorways are barely tall enough for a grown man to pass through.
After all that walking we were thirsty, so we had to stop at the local watering hole, The Keys. These wee pubs have so much character, but they really are small. The only way to get a decent photo of the place was in the mirror - can you see us?
Back outside, on the side of another church was a tribute to the Polish who fought in WWII.
Despite all this anti-immigration stuff you may have been reading about in the news lately, the Polish have had a major impact on Scottish history, and visa versa. The Scottish and Polish have moved back and forth for centuries. In fact, the Polish armada was
housed in Scotland during WWII. There's a lot of love between the two countries and rightly so.
Overall, the thing that most intrigued me about St. Andrews were all the alleyways, closes, and corner that hinted to something just around the bend, down the road, or through a tunnel... sites that were absolutely begging for a character or characters to be playing out some sort of drama or story. Like these:
Can't you just see the stories unfolding? And it's everywhere, even in the school yards. I mean, imagine growing up with that ancient cathedral looming over you. How would that affect your view of time and your place in the world? I imagine it would have quite an impact.
St. Andrews is definitely a golf town - signs of that were everywhere. But it also had wide sidewalks, sweet shops, cafes everywhere, and a laid back vibe befitting a college town. We have other friends in St. Andrews who we haven't visited yet, and I look forward to the opportunity to go back and see it through their eyes.
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