I remember the days of horrible British food--mushy vegetables, tough roast beef, watery soup. When I traveled with my mom and dad around Britain's post-colonial empire in the 1950s, that was the cuisine of the hotels where we stayed. Times have changed. Today's British food is delicious. In the big cities, including Glasgow and Edinburgh, the fast food is heavily ethnic. One magazine article named Turkish kebabs and Indian chicken masala as British mainstays. In the smaller cities and towns of Scotland, traditional British food still reigns, in the form of crisp fish and chips and buttery scones, meat pies and "steak and ale." On Sunday, July 30, 2017, we sampled fish and chips from one of the most highly rated cafes in the country, and great scones with black currant jam.
We started our day with Church at the Perth branch, half an hour southeast of Aberfeldy. One of the counselors in the bishopric was an ex-pat from Whitefish, Montana, serving as Boeing's representative at a Boeing supplier in Perth which made helicopter parts. The members of the ward were delightful--very friendly and earnestly trying to become a ward, if they can just increase their priesthood members from six to twelve.
We enjoyed the colorful road signs in Scotland, warning us of everything from elderly people to "vehicles in the middle of the road." That sign appeared before narrow, one-lane bridges.
Our next stop was Scone Palace, now the home of the Fraser clan.
On the palace grounds was Mount Hall, where Scottish kings were crowned until 1296.
The kings sat on the "Stone of Destiny" (replica above), which was captured by Edward I of England in 1296. The English didn't give the Stone of Destiny back to Scotland until 1995, when Scotland got back its Parliament.
Inside Mount Hall were tombs and statues of medieval Scottish kings.
The palace was surrounded by beautiful gardens.
Inside the palace were treasures of the Fraser family, a powerful group which hosted Scottish royalty. The palace is now run as a "family business," rented out for tours and weddings, while the family lives upstairs. There was a room of photographs showing the past and present Frasers with their aristocratic family and royal connections.
The special treasure of this room was a small gilt table which was a gift from Marie Antoinette.
The palace had a charming cafe, where Dave and I paused for sweet potato soup, scones, and a selection of Scottish jams. Dave bought a supply of strawberry rhubarb jam from the gift shop to take home.
We dashed through St. Andrews, on the southeast coast of Scotland, as we tried to reach the Scottish Fisheries Museum in Anstruther before it closed. We realized, as we barreled through the historic area of St. Andrews, that we had made a major miscalculation--this was a quaint, historic, and very important city which merited a half day instead of a few minutes. I felt like my mother, the day we toured the Louvre in half an hour.
St. Andrews contains the oldest university in Scotland, renowned by the Scottish as another Cambridge or Oxford. It also contains the ruins of a medieval cathedral, which are most picturesque.
And, St. Andrews is the home of golf, which was first played on the course above.
Anstruther is one of several fishing towns along the Fife Coast, on the north side of the Firth of Forth, facing Edinburgh across the water.
I remember pushing Lisa around in an English baby pram during her first summer, which we spent in Fairbanks, Alaska. Seeing this Scottish lady with her baby brought back memories.
We reached the Scottish Fisheries Museum before it closed, and we were not disappointed. The museum was filled with different types of fishing boats, fishing equipment, and stories about Scottish fishermen.
I enjoyed learning about the traveling women who gutted and packed herring. They started in Wick, on the northeast coast of Scotland, at the beginning of the herring season, and then moved south all summer, working on the dock to pack the fish the boats brought home.
There were also displays of photographs of fishermen, like this evocative picture.
We ordered fish and chips "take away" at the Anstruther Fish Bar. The line went out the door and down the street. Photos on the walls showed its famous visitors, such as Tom Hanks.
Scottish wait people, like this girl, were uniformly friendly and helpful.
We sat on the pier, eating our fish and chips, served with a side order of chili sauce.
All we needed for complete happiness was an ice cream cone.
We finished the day with a concert of Scottish music by Donnie Munro, from the Isle of Skye. Some of the songs were sung in Gaelic. Apparently, Donnie Munro has quite a following, and performs both in the US and Europe.
