The greens at St. Andrews – for Ron

I drive most of our travel choices – the whales, stained glass, sewer museums, and endless buildings. Ron’s generally happy to come along. But for this trip, Ron wanted to go to Scotland and he wanted to stand in front of The Old Course at St. Andrews. This picture below is for those of you waiting to see if Ron made it out onto the greens at St. Andrews. It was a pretty thrilling moment – even for me.

It was equally fun to watch him in the official Old Course store. As an act of kindness, I will not share the bill from his shopping, but it was shocking enough that I did take a picture of it.

We’re in Edinburgh for a week so we’ve got time for a few day trips and a chance to really look at all of Edinburgh’s sites. There’s a lot of beautiful architecture here.

First up was Edinburgh Castle, where we showed up with our sought-after special tour tickets and were promptly turned away because the entire castle was shut down for a gas leak.

Here is Edinburgh Castle (built 1103) and Ron (built later) being turned away:

One thing that’s nice about Edinburgh is that it’s pretty small compared to a place like London. We threw together a new plan and did the following, walking easily between sites.

We passed by the National Art Gallery and, with an entire free day, spent an hour. I arrogantly told Ron that, based on liking this picture, I was a fan of French Impressionism, and Ron, without a moment’s hesitation, told me that Gauguin was no French Impressionist at all. I looked this assertion up and Ron is right, underscoring why traveling with Ron is so frustrating. Here is Martinique Landscape from 1887, by Paul Gauguin, a Post-Impressionist and Symbolist artist:

I also liked this 1895 painting by John Emms. It’s a painting of the Dandie Dinmont terrier owned by James Cowan Smith. Smith died in 1919 and left the equivalent of 2.6 million dollars to the museum – to buy art of French Impressionists and not-French Impressionists alike – on the condition that this rendering of his beloved Dandie Dinmont enjoying a dead rat be displayed in perpetuity:

We had time for the Scottish National Portrait Gallery. Kris reports that there is some art inside, but I was there for the architecture. Look at the exterior – gothic revival from 1895:

And then look at this Great Hall in the Portrait Gallery. The frieze you see contains 155 figures from Scottish history, in reverse chronological order – royalty, military, poets, inventors, and religious leaders. The frieze – painted by William Brassey Hole in 1897- was a requirement from the key financial donor for the building itself – paint the frieze or no building gets funded. At least they weren’t required to put a picture of the Dandie Dinmont and the dead rat here too:

Here is Ron, being forced to wait for me while I wander the hall:

Our other amazing stop for the day was the National Museum of Scotland. The current exterior shows no hint of the what the interior holds. Here’s the exterior:

And here’s the entry hall:

This place is fabulous. If someone put me in charge of filling a museum, this is what it would look like. It contains the most wide-ranging offerings of various collections: the history of fashion, telephone development, 3D printing mechanisms, some Egyptian artifacts, a shoe collection, an entire hall of animals. Here’s a few pictures. If you’re in Edinburgh, GO here:

Here are some 1976 Alexander McQueen boots:

And this 1750s open-fronted Mantua, which was a type of Court Wear – used for very formal occasions. It’s a comfortable-looking piece as long as you don’t need to breathe or move:

Here’s an Egyptian sock that is 1700 years old:

An Egyptian toy mouse that is 3500 years old:

An Egyptian razor, also 3500 years old:

A parka from 1820, made of sea mammal intestine:

And here’s the last offering. The Millenium Clock – 32 feet tall, from 1999.

I’ll leave you with this other picture from St. Andrews. It’s Ron at the university book shop, making another purchase. One week in and he’s purchased 3 sweatshirts and 3 hats.