What a day!

Busy, busy day today - and I'm exhausted, but here goes: So right after breakfast (which was once again mammoth in size) we drove to St. Andrews. It's a little sea-side town you may have heard of before - it seems to be known for its golf history. :) Anyway, we visited the St. Andrews Cathedral and the St. Andrews Castle. Both are in ruins, but both are still AMAZINGLY cool. I was JUST as impressed with the St. A's Cathedral in ruins as I was St. Mary's Cathedral in Edinburgh which was still in pristine condition. It's hard to explain; maybe it's the size, or maybe it's the age... but it's just so overwhelming to be standing on the sites of these historical giants. St. Andrew's Cathedral was first erected in 1271. Did you catch that?? 1271! Please don't let it escape your understanding that 1271 was a long, long time ago... (Marco Polo hadn't even found China, yet... though he was on his way there.)

After the cathedral we headed to the castle, which you can see quite nicely from the top of one of the towers at the cathedral. St. Andrews is extra cool because it's one of those towns that still has the original city walls surrounding most of it - think Medieval times when each town had one church, one castle, a school, a market, etc... everything that it needed within the city walls. So, when you drive in, you drive through what at one time would have been the gates to the city, guarded by soldiers, no doubt.

Anyway, the castle, like all the rest, has amazing stories of siege and conquest, but it's special because of it's location. It rests on the very end of a small peninsula that juts out into the English Channel (or the North Sea - we couldn't decide where the boundaries were exactly), so the view is AMAZING. Those of you who know me well know that it's not easy to impress me with scenery in general - but give me scenery that involves the ocean and you have a fighting chance. I could just imagine living in the castle in the 1500's and looking out my turret window to see the sea gulls nesting on the sea walls below. So cool. And today, 500 years later, it's the same view I had.

View of the castle from the top of one of the towers at St. Andrew's Cathedral.

This is a view of the front/side of the castle... there really was only a front and a back; for the most part, the sides were down.

I thought this one was cool... you look through the front gate (think drawbridge) and see through to the back wall of the castle and in the back left, you can see the sea.

And this is me, imagining myself in lights for just a moment, on the temporary stage in the center of the castle courtyard. WHY was there a temporary stage there, you ask? Well, it just so happened that Globe Touring (a group commissioned by THE GLOBE THEATER -yes, London!) were in St. Andrews this weekend performing - wait for it - ROMEO & JULIET!!! It was AMAZING.

So, it is at this point that if you are nothing about Shakespeare and/or theater... you can stop reading. I do realize that this post has already gotten too long... BUT, for those of you who may care (Stef... Dan... Paul...?) I SO wished that the three of you were there! We sat in the grass on a little blanket in the cold drizzle for just over 2 hours, and I loved every second of it! The whole entire thing was performed by 8 people - yes, 8! The actors for Romeo, Benvolio (also Balthasar & the Chorus) & The Friar (who was also Lord Capulet) were incredible! Dan, the guy who played Benvolio looked just a little like you - so that was fun, too. Of course, it was totally modernized, and Juliet's balcony was the top of a teal 70's model VW van... in fact, that was really the only set piece there was. We werent allowed to take pictures during the show, but I did take a few before the show started, so I'll share a few of those here. Other than that, it was also cool that when the characters would say certain lines - they were REALLY true for the setting (the courtyard of a medieval castle)... like when Juliet says, "O, bid me leap, rather than marry Paris, From off the battlements of yonder tower"... or when Romeo says, "With love's light wings did I o'er-perch these walls; For stony limits cannot hold love out..." they could really POINT to the towers and walls that were right there around us. Ok, so enough of that... but last thing before I share the pictures... for anyone who is keeping track: I watched the entire performance and didnt miss a single second of it... :)