In the summer of 2010, I was living in London. I was disappointed in myself that I missed out on an opportunity to go to Wimbledon because I had been traveling during late June. Well, when it comes to British sporting events if Wimbledon is 1A then The Open Championship is 1B. I was not going to miss out on The Open being played at the birthplace of golf, St. Andrews in Scotland.
I had been traveling back in the US right around the first of July and by the time I returned to London it was almost British Open time and my regret of missing out on tennis drove me to make some travel plans. Now tickets to the actual event were crazy expensive not to mention that there are like 13 hotel rooms in St. Andrews so I had to figure out a way to do this on my budget.
After a bit of thinking and searching on the internet I realized that practice rounds begin a full week early on the Sunday before the tournament starts and tickets were £20. Now I just had to figure out transportation and lodging. Edinburgh, the capital of Scotland is the closest real city and trains run there from London. Friday morning I finally pulled the trigger. I bought a train ticket for Saturday morning. I would stay in a hostel in Edinburgh Saturday night and then Sunday morning, 1 more train ride, 1 bus ride and a short walk through the town of St. Andrews and I would be at the birthplace of golf, watching the pros take their first practice rounds.
Saturday morning I was up early to walk to Liverpool Street tube station because my station, Aldgate East, wasn't running that early. I caught the tube to King's Cross where I grabbed a drink and pain au chocolat from Pret a Manger. I had a few minutes until my train left for Edinburgh but I hurried onto the platform to find my seat. The ride was pleasant with a few stops along the way. I visited the lunch car and bought myself a snack which I enjoyed while watching a movie on my laptop. We arrived in Edinburgh around noon and I had the rest of the day to explore the Scottish capital.
It was incredibly foggy, which felt right for Scotland. I didn't have a ton of luggage but I still wanted to drop it off at my hostel and see if there were any other people there that were going around to some sites today. It took me a bit to find the hostel because the map I was using didn't seem to be for pedestrians and I was left on the wrong level of bridges or roads looking down on where I needed to be. Edinburgh is not some sprawling mass of a city either it just has strategic hills that leaves roads seemingly on top of each other on the map but in my walking reality they were not that close to each other.
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| Proof that it was foggy. |
I finally found my hostel and almost wanted to take a nap from exhaustion but lets not joke I was in Scotland for 36 hours, there would be time for napping on my train ride back to London. I climbed Calton Hill first to get a birds' eye view of the city but the fog was overwhelming. The National Monument and other structures on the hill were still quite beautiful and because the weather was not the most wonderful, I had a lot of the space to myself. I also visited a Scotch house and found that I was not a fan of Scotch whisky. My hostel was located near the Edinburgh Castle which made for some delightful photos at night.
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| Scotland's National Monument |
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| The City from Calton Hill |
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| Edinburgh Castle at Night |
I was up early the next morning for my busy day of golf, St. Andrews, and travel. I awoke to a bright and cheery day. I hopped on to the local train to Leuchars where I then got on a bus which took me to the little town of St. Andrews. A short walk through town and I was at the birthplace of golf.
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| Blue Skies in Edinburgh |
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| The Open Championship at St. Andrews |
I was one of the first people in line to enter the course for the practice rounds which was pretty exciting. The stewards weren't really set up to keep me from going anywhere plus there were only about 20 or so people that were walking the course in the morning. I got to walk with Tiger Woods for a few holes, as well as Jim Furyk and Phil Mickelson. It was an interesting view on how they interacted with each other. Lots of banter and shooting 4 or 5 shots from the same spot. I stopped by the pro-shop to buy an Open souvenir which was still being set up as I made my purchase. By the early afternoon, I wanted to check out the town of St. Andrews so I made my way up the 18th fairway of the Old Course and back to the town.
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| Tiger with the Tiger driver cover. |
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| Phil Mickelson |
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| Jim Furyk |
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| The 18th Fairway at the Old Course |
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| The Royal and Ancient Golf Club of St. Andrews |
I found St. Andrew's Cathedral to be amazing. It was right on the water and not like other cathedrals because well its just the ruins of the ancient cathedral. I also wandered down to St. Andrew's beach which gave some stunning views of the North Sea. Before long I had to make my way back to London via a bus, a local train, an express train, and then the tube.
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| St. Andrew's Cathedral |
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