The 600-year week
Breaking the monotony of US road trip flashbacks it is high time I returned to the present and let you in on a few of my more recent adventures. For that purpose we're hopping across the big pond (aka the Atlantic Ocean) and find ourselves in the heart of Scotland. Well, on the Fife coast in any way. In St Andrews to be exact. St Andrews (to a Berliner) is the cutest little university town that revolves entirely around the students and their daily lives. Most of the buildings are ancient and full of history, the streets swarming with the chatter of current students while still holding memories from fellows long gone.
The university has a long history proudly calling itself Scotland's first university it was founded in 1411 and recognised as an academic institution in 1413. The clever mathematicians among you will have already figured out what that means: the University of St Andrews has been celebrating its 600th anniversary for the past two years. And on a lovely September Saturday that jubilee culminated in an impressive display of fireworks.
But let's start at the beginning:
As you can see, contrary to what one would believe, St Andrews has been blessed with rather sunny weather during the last couple of weeks. We decided to put our good fortune to even better use and participated in a small university tour. Now, I'm planning to do a separate post on St Andrews itself so I'm going to leave you with just a few impressions now.
This is St Salvator's Quad which is something akin to the heart of the university.
Our lovely tour guide in front of Younger Hall (brownie points if you know why she is wearing her gown off her shoulders)
Sea view by the Castle
The Castle itself (or what is left of it)
And then the exciting part: the fireworks! We had met up prior to the big event and had some homemade Indian food for supper before we bundled up and headed to the beach. Punctuality unfortunately isn't the great forte of the British so we jittered around for a little while before the show finally started.
Admittedly, it was not a very promising start and we already felt the first inklings of disappointment spreading up.
But gradually, they upped the ante and the whole affair took a (slightly) magical turn towards a happy ending.
A very happy ending
A very, very happy ending with entirely frozen feet. But that is neither here nor there. Happy 600th St Andrews! Let's make the big 1000 next.
The university has a long history proudly calling itself Scotland's first university it was founded in 1411 and recognised as an academic institution in 1413. The clever mathematicians among you will have already figured out what that means: the University of St Andrews has been celebrating its 600th anniversary for the past two years. And on a lovely September Saturday that jubilee culminated in an impressive display of fireworks.
But let's start at the beginning:
As you can see, contrary to what one would believe, St Andrews has been blessed with rather sunny weather during the last couple of weeks. We decided to put our good fortune to even better use and participated in a small university tour. Now, I'm planning to do a separate post on St Andrews itself so I'm going to leave you with just a few impressions now.
This is St Salvator's Quad which is something akin to the heart of the university.
Our lovely tour guide in front of Younger Hall (brownie points if you know why she is wearing her gown off her shoulders)
Sea view by the Castle
The Castle itself (or what is left of it)
And then the exciting part: the fireworks! We had met up prior to the big event and had some homemade Indian food for supper before we bundled up and headed to the beach. Punctuality unfortunately isn't the great forte of the British so we jittered around for a little while before the show finally started.
Admittedly, it was not a very promising start and we already felt the first inklings of disappointment spreading up.
But gradually, they upped the ante and the whole affair took a (slightly) magical turn towards a happy ending.
A very happy ending
A very, very happy ending with entirely frozen feet. But that is neither here nor there. Happy 600th St Andrews! Let's make the big 1000 next.
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