Yeah, I have no idea how to pronounce it either.
The first half of our week off took us to an area just North of Edinburgh, and a little village called Lower Largo. We stayed in a cottage where, apparently, once upon a time, Alexander Selkirk lived. Alex S was the original Robinson Crusoe. There’s a statue above the entrance which I took a photo of – I really should have made more of an effort to understand the history of this, but satisfied myself with the fact that he escaped cold windy Scotland to live a life of luxury on a tropical island somewhere off the coast of Chile.
I was immediately back out in the car to B&Q. Apparently a different type of log burner is not as easy to get going as our one, so we needed plenty more flammable items. I couldn’t find the fire lighters in B&Q, so had to ask. Turns out they keep them high up, unmarked on the shelf, in the indoor garden section. Cue assistant wheeling over huge ladders, cordoning off an aisle (seriously), and struggling with some stiff step mechanisms to get me a 95p box of fire lighters from shelf 4. I was told with a bit of a sigh that the aisle had to be cordoned off due to an incident where a container of methylated spirits was dropped onto a child. Bet that resulted in one hell of a claim.
Fire lit, we then realised there was no TV. There was a projector provided, and wifi, and some instructions to ‘project an iPad onto a white wall’. Unfortunately these instructions missed the vital factors that a) creating a blank wall meant taking down a few pictures, or a mirror; b) you can’t connect to the wifi to stream and sinultaneously wirelessly to the projector at the same time; and c) the projector was a bit crap. We resorted to putting Smooth FM on the radio and reading or playing UNO, which was absolutely the best solution. Incidentally, I then managed to read “An Atlas of Countries that Don’t Exist” in super quick time, which when combined with Google Maps and Wikipedia makes a great rabbit hole laden read.
On the Monday we decided on a trip to see some of the picturesque harbour villages of the East Neuk: Elie, Anstruther and Crail. We quickly hit ‘temple zone’, and didn’t even get out of the car in the third village. “When you’ve seen one harbour, you’ve seen them all”… Well, it was cold, and past lunch time. Dinner on this day turned out to be a real treat. We popped into Blacketyside Farm Shop for some soup, and I ended up with this winning plate of stodge:
The beef olive was stuffed with what tasted like corned beef, the beige stuff was “clapshot”, and the gravy lovely. It was just missing a slice of Warburtons to mop everything up.
We can’t do a huge amount of overly physical activity at the moment due to the imminent arrival of a baby, so we contented ourselves to sample some of the best food the area had to offer. In St Andrews (picturesque, but someone dropped a golf course in the middle of it) we visited The Seafood Restaurant. This was a real pleasant surprise – food you would expect from a really high end establishment served overlooking the sea. The highlight for me was the cod main course – and a theme for this week has been trying to have more seafood rather than fall back on the beef option.
We also took advantage of being able to make the most of lunch menus; often the best value way to experience Michelin Starred restaurants. The Peat Inn, situated in the village of the same name, was our destination for our first lunch menu.
We loved it. They’ve managed to retain the down to earth feel of a friendly eating place but also elevate the standards to earn that coveted star. From amuse-bouche through to desert, everything was mightily tasty. I also love that they offered to accommodate pregnancy related requirements in whatever way we wanted, and dealt expertly with a man in cherry red chinos and his wife who just popped in for a bowl of soup. Whilst some places would have sent Retd Colonel Wilson-Smythe on his merry way, he and his wife were still at the table next to us an hour later having a starter and questioning us about the flavours of our main course. That to me added to the enjoyment of the meal and the atmosphere.
Thus our short stay in East Neuk of Fife ended, but not before a trip to the local Railway Inn pub to sample the local hospitality. We only stopped for a couple of pints (and a coke), but left knowing about the different ailments suffered by several townsfolk, and the state of John the Geordie’s car (still being repaired, if you’re wondering). A small place which still clearly holds onto a real sense of community; something which should be warmly cherished.
We headed then over the Forth Road Bridge to Edinburgh for the second half of our week in Scotland. A bit of city living to balance our rural start to the week.
toorantom - keep smiling 