This a modest breakfast for Tom...only one egg (not 2), only one sausage (not 2) and only one haggis (not 2).....an addition of a potato scone. However, this is preceded by lots of fresh fruit, meusli, yogurt, toast. These folks eat their breakfast like dinners....starters (appetisers) then your main.
Aha! Here is one reason Cupar is so clean...the street sweeper!!!! by hand, not machine!!!
And parked on the sidewalk is his push cart for the debris and other tools. I saw the street sweepers 40 years ago in France; didn't know they still existed!
Tom's smilin' cuz he ISN'T driving!!!
We are on the road to explore the southern coast of St. Andrews peninsula AKA East Neuk.
We start out for Carich. After a wrong turn or tow, we decide to head much farther south.
And end up in Lower Largo, a lovely little fishing village. The car park is quite a climb above the harbour.
The harbour has seen better days.
The rail bridge through town.
Pub!
A high-tide harbour.
Lower Largo is a very wealthy town.
We find a little park with a bench to sit and read for an hour or so.
A Care Home as opposed to a Nursing Home. We like the concept.
Look closely for the name of this hotel, i.e., the Crusoe Hotel. We wondered why since we had seen a sign or two about the Crusoe monument. We wondered if it had anything to do with Daniel Defoe or the fictional Robinson Crusoe.
K's fascination with mail boxes built into walls continues.
Lower Largo is much lower than Upper Largo; as a matter of fact, it is right on the water.
That lonely ship out there is one of the RNLI. We could identify it by its orange colour.
When we passed the Crusoe Hotel earlier, we mentioned Robinson Crusoe. We finally found the Robinson Crusoe statue that we were looking for -- above the red doors.
As it happens, the inspiration for Defoe's Robinson Crusoe was a real seaman born in 1676 in this house in Lower Largo. Alexander Selkirk went to sea at an early age. In 1704, after an argument with his captain, he decided to stay on a deserted island rather than get back on a worm eaten ship. He was alone on the island for 4 years before being picked up. There was no Man Friday.
After Crusoe and Lower Largo, we moved on to the south to Buckhaven and Kirkcaldy. We were looking for cute and quaint but found large and industrial.
We went looking for a loo and lunch, we ended up with a shopping centre toilet and ice creme.
Wonder how they get it all the way from NZ.
We don't like the industrial, ugly, big city. We head back north. Can't EVER pass up a farmer's market, no matter where it is.
They aren't real.
Info for any of you hunters out there!
Great market, but nothing yet compares to the Burrough Market in London
Isn't beetroot a more accurate name than beets? The beet IS the root, isn't it?
Our shallots are tiny, compared to these.
The flat peaches Mary gave us each day in Cupar!
Our first stop on our northern journey is St. Monans
The town of St. Monans was rather ordinary, simple
Its location on the Fife Coastal Path, however, was quite extraordinary! Oh, yeah, we are in the Kingdom of Fife. The map below may give a better idea of where we are. Everyone goes to St. Andrews, but doubt that many of those tourists make it to East Neuk!
We are walking a portion of the Fife Coastal Path. Looking up, we note what must be very pricey real estate....perhaps this is not just an ordinary town!
I gasp: "What in the world? A trailer park?" We found out later that these are not "trailers" nor "mobile homes"; they are "vacation homes" and rented only on a weekly or monthly basis.....makes me feel a little better, but not too much.
What a fabulous design for a swing for toddlers (wee ones)
On a closer look, these are bags of concrete mix....clever way to make a retaining wall.
Our path destination....the Windmill! The windmill was part of an operation to produce salt. In the late 1700's the windmill was used to pump sea water up to the salt pans.
Coal was mined in the area by the same company making the salt.
The pans had coal fires under them in brick kilns. The fires boiled off the water to crystallise the salt. The pans were situated on the earthen ruins. The operation produced salt until 1823 when tax law changes made English rock salt more economical.
We are back on the road again headed north in East Neuk, Fife. The road is narrow and there's no walkway for people walking to the grocery store.
A nice fishing village cottage with flowers.
And more fields of Fife oats -- they make a great porridge, especially when the whisky is added!
Anstruther, another fishing village, still going north.
We are happy to see another RNLI location, to have noticed the boat off this coast and to know that this wonderful volunteer organisation exists.
We finally made it all the way to Crail but were unimpressed. Back in Anstruther, we seek dinner. Rather than wait an hour and a half for the locally famous Waterfront Seafood Restaurant, we go down the street for immediate seating at The Boathouse.
The seafood chowder was like no chowder Tom has ever tasted. It was labeled a "starter", but was a meal in itself!
Kathy's baked trout, which looks like salmon, was melt in your mouth excellent.
The prawn linguini was almost too spicy even for Tom -- took lots of water.
Back on the road to Cupar, we are reminded of the agricultural nature of this part of Scotland. They put up a lot of hay here -- needed for the cattle and sheep for the long winter. Fortunately the grass grows fast with 16-18 hours of sun per day and usually plenty of rain.
The end of another beautiful day in Scotland.
