July 2, 2018

July 2, 2018

This morning we visited St Andrews’ British Golf Museum that covers the history of the game. Like baseball in America, Golf has a long history and has been played for probably 500 years in Scotland. Fans have always been obsessed about it. So much so that more than one king banned it because players were neglecting their Archery practice. Equipment has improved over time but the game has surprisingly remained consistent for generations.

We watched golfers teeing off on the now busy Old Course, then left town back toward Edinburgh. Before crossing the newest road bridge across the Firth of Forth, we stopped at the base of the World Heritage Railroad Bridge. Voted Scotland's greatest man-made wonder, this cantilever bridge opened in 1890. The sun wasn’t favorable so we crossed to the south side for a better photo near Hawes Pier. The weather is again beautiful so we had a light lunch on a terrace with a great view of the bridge.

In Edinburgh, we checked into our student dorm accommodation and then visited the National Museum of Scotland. We only had an hour. Interestingly it tried to cover almost every subject albeit in brief. It could only have a few artifacts per subject but those were mostly exquisite. For example, it has the oldest surviving steam locomotive. Happily for Aimee, there was a large exhibit on fashion which kept her attention the entire time.

We then walked the city area south of the Castle. Edinburgh is a great city to walk and has lots of places with character and colorful scenery. We had a Thai dinner just off the Royal Mile.