St. Andrews, Scotland

June 23, 2026

We left Edinburgh with the Gate 1 tour group today. We passed over the Firth of Forth. This picture from the bus shows part of the Forth Bridge.

It was still early for heather, but occasionaly we drove by patches of purple where it was just starting to bloom.

The landscape was filled with so many beautiful shades of green.

On our way to Aviemore, we first stopped in St. Andrews, famous for its world-renowned St. Andrew's Beach Golf Course. This year (2026), it ranked #86 in the top 100 world golf courses.

The sandy beach behind it is St. Andrew's Beach and scenes from the movie Chariots of Fire were filmed there.

While there we visited the R & A World Golf Museum which showcases 400 years of golf history.

We enjoyed a relaxing visit to the St. Andrew's aquarium which featured fish from around the world. As we headed down the stairs, the walls were decorated with replicas of dinosaur fossils.

Once downstairs, we enjoyed the great diversity of animals in the aquarium.

Boeseman's Rainbow Fish from West Papua, Indonesia

Caribe Piranha from Colombia and Venezuela

Pearl Gourami from Southeast Asia

Thornback Ray, Starry Smooth-hound Shark, and European Sea Bass (North Atlantic Ocean)

Red Lionfish from the Indo-Pacific but has become an invasive species in the Atlantic Ocean.

Fish from the Coral Reef

However, they did not limit themselves to fish, or even to animals that live in the water.

They also had insects like the Giant Thorny Stick Insect from the Philippines.

We saw amphibians like the axolotl from high-altitude lakes in Central Mexico,

and reptiles.

Common Snapping Turtle from the United States and Mexico

Sorong Green Tree Python from West Papua, Indonesia

Yellow-bellied Slider from the United States, but it is an invasive species in the United Kingdom.

The mammals were my favorite. We had arrived for feeding time for the pygmy marmosets from the Amazon.

The meerkats from southern Africa were adorable.

Afterwards, we relaxed with some soft drinks in an eating area overlooking a small beach where there were some Northern Fulmars nesting in the rocky outcrops above the beach.

On our way back to meet the bus, we admired the Martyr's Monument built in the 1800s to remember 4 Protestants who were killed during the Scottish Reformation in the 16th century. It was built to remember their sacrifice and to be thankful for the freedom of religion we enjoy today.