In addition to the cathedral in St. Andrews, there is also a castle ruin.
St. Andrews Castle was home to the bishops of the cathedral – yeah, the bishops, they lived in castles, too… This one figured quite prominently in the conflicts surrounding the Scottish reformation. One Protestant was burned at the stake, and then the townspeople stormed the castle and killed the Cardinal who’d ordered the execution.
From the grounds of the castle ruin, this is the look back toward the cathedral… 
Sometimes it’s the little things that make for finding your way into a comfort zone in otherwise unfamiliar surroundings….
A coffee mug, for example…
I think the British must learned how to drink coffee by drinking tea.
Now THAT’s a proper coffee mug.
How else to explain the ridiculous coffee cups I found in most of the country? You know the type… it’s really a tea cup. There is a little handle that’s barely big enough to get one finger into.
Clearly they haven’t done the physics on those things … a hot cup balanced on the 3rd and 4th fingers… they do know that coffee is hot, right? And that the heat transfers to the vessel holding the fluids? And that heat then transfers to the fingers trying to balance the cup? Apparently they haven’t figured that out yet, they’re too busy keeping their upper lips stiff…
So, regrettably – since I’m really making an effort to avoid the multi-national chains and patronize the local shops – I finally had to give in and go to a Starbucks to get a cup of coffee in a proper put-your-fist-in-it mug.
The last stop on the journey… arriving once again before sunrise, waiting for the gates to open…. St. Andrews was the largest Catholic church in all of Scotland… and now all that stands are the twin towers at the eastern end, and half the wall of the western entrance. And a lot of rocks… 
The final leg of the trip, traveling this Sunday afternoon from Harrogate in Yorkshire to St. Andrews in the Kingdom of Fife, Scotland. This rainbow followed me most of the way… a most unusual rainbow, I might add, because it formed in an otherwise perfectly clear sky. There wasn’t any rain to speak of… just… this rainbow…
Hot and cold water from the same faucet… something of a rarity in this part of the supposedly civilized world…
At the AirBnB home where I stayed in St. Andrews, Scotland.
One of my favorite shots from this whole excursion… this couple peering avidly through the window, listening to the choir performing in the cellarium… 
I travel with thousands of dollars worth of cameras, lenses, and accessories. But all too often, the most valuable bit of gear in my bag is this $5 pair of Home Depot knee pads… 
Fountains Abbey – Yorkshire, England
One of the more expansive and well preserved ruins in Yorkshire, built by the Cistercians from the 12th to 14th centuries and, like the others, dissolved by Henry III in the mid 1500s.
I visited Fountains when I was here last year, but arrived late in the day and only managed to patrol the perimeter, so to speak. I never got inside.
This time I spent almost 10 hours on the property. I arrived shortly after the grounds opened, had a private tour (nobody else showed up) for about two hours, and then stayed well into the evening.
I didn’t know when I decided to spend the day at Fountains that Saturdays in the autumn they light the place up, offer picnics and barbecue, and then a choir performs in the vaulted chambers beneath beneath the refectory.
The “Elysian Singers” perform in the cellarium at Fountains Abbey
Jervaux Abbey in Yorkshire is off the beaten path… it’s on a privately owned estate, so it doesn’t show up in any of the English Heritage guides. I learned about it from chatting with the attendant in the visitor center at Kirkstall Abbey.
When I see paintings of these ruins from the “Romantic” period – late 18th, early 19th centuries – they are often depicted as lushly overgrown with foliage hanging from the walls and columns. But today, they are mostly well maintained, the foliage trimmed and cut back almost to the point of non-existence.
So Jervaux Abbey was something of a throwback to an earlier time… the owners apparently spend a whole lot of money trimming the foliage. So more than any other ruin I visited during this trip, Jervaux recalls the paintings of JMW Turner, who, I learned, sat on this very hill in 1816 (almost 200 years ago) and sketched this ruin for a Yorkshire visitor guide.
Not familiar with JMW Turner? You will be soon… there is a major feature film about him coming to the US later this fall… In the meantime, Google him…
Because nothing says “cozy English cafe” like three Chinese icons hanging on the wall above a warning about wet floors…
Cambridge Cafe, Cambridge St. – Harrogate, Yorkshire England
