Sunday by The Scores

A lovely view of the West Sands. This is the beach where the opening scene of the movie "Chariots of Fire" was filmed. Duh nuh nuh nuh nuuuh nuuuuhh, chha chha chaaa chaaa...

This past Sunday, Patrick and I took a stroll down to an area of St. Andrews that I've been wanting to see but hadn't quite made it to. St. Andrews is a town known for its university and its golf course. I've already seen a lot of the first, but nothing of the latter, unless you count driving by and wondering "hmm, I bet that's the golf course..." After packing a hearty lunch - peanut butter and jelly - and picking up two hot coffees from a delicious placed called The Coffee House - for "take-away", of course - we headed down to the West Sands and the Old Course. Of course ; )

This shot was actually taken after we went through the golf course. It led straight to the beach, which serves to show how close the course is to the ocean.

The West Sands of St. Andrews is a beach down by The Scores, a road that runs along the ocean. It is quite famous in that the opening scene from Chariots of Fire, filmed in 1981, were shot on this very beach. It is a scene where a bunch of white guys wearing white shirts and white shorts run along the beach, focusing particularly on a couple of the guys and the strange faces they make while running. Patrick and I didn't run the beach, but we did walk along the soft sand. It was amazingly soft and oddly enough, very shiny.

I refuse to run in tiny white shorts...

Lucky for us, the weather has been pretty steady and on Sunday it was brisk but sunny; however down by the water the wind was blowing and the temperature dropped. It was still very nice. I mean, how many people can walk to the ocean from their house? I was sure to pick up some little seashells as a souvenir.

Welcome to the Old Course! Photo opportunity just to your right: pose with a flag stuck in a hole.

On Sundays, the Old Course opens its grounds to the citizens of St. Andrews and everyone, young, old, and four-legged are able to walk the grounds. Dogs everywhere: chasing balls, chasing each other, chasing their dreams. The Old Course is one of the oldest golf courses in the world. The people of Scotland like to say that this is where golf was invented, first played here in the early 1400s. The question that I've heard, quite possibly the most, from people I know: do you play golf? Now, I know a thing or two about golf from my old man, but I'm not a golfer myself. Neither is Patrick. So we spent our time walking the amazingly soft grass of the course.

We were curious as to whether it was real, so we both bent down to give it a rub. The most action that grass has seen all day. (Believe us, it's real.)

From what I understand, no one plays golf on Sundays, however we did see a number of people teeing up. Perhaps it is "play at your own risk" considering the amount of people that come out to walk around. For fun, I'm assuming for fun, there is a place for people to rent golf clubs and put, just like going to a mini-golf course in the States.

Note the fashion: Plaid pants, argyle knee socks, clubs on back. Classic Old Course.

It's a really nice place to walk and get some exercise. I saw someone jogging along one of the gravel paths of the old course, which I'm assuming is a great place for a workout considering there are actually hills in a generally flat town. Hopefully we will go back soon before the weather gets too cold to enjoy the ocean. However, in my opinion, there is never a bad time to go to the ocean.

(By the way - This blog post is dedicated to my dad, who never let us forget that the Old Course was open for walking on Sundays. I mean, seriously, he never stopped reminding us :P)

Cheers!

(As always, to see more photos from this day, visit my flickr page!)