Sweden to Scotland

On Monday we had a rather tiring trip from Sweden to St Andrews in Scotland via Heathrow which was a bit hairy due to security and changing terminals and so on. But Tuesday was a beautiful sunny day and I enjoyed wandering around St Andrews which is of course famous for its golf course (pictured) – the Royal and Ancient golf club - such a great name. It is such a cute little hobbit town with a splendid ruined castle and cathedral. It is also famous for its university which Prince William attended. We heard lots of posh English accents as it is graduation week.

In the evening a sea fog rolled in and the town was enveloped in it – it seemed very much like Sherlock Holmes and the Hound of the Baskervilles to me. We had a nice train trip to London the next day losing the fog near Newcastle, and played Monopoly in our heads as we changed from Kings Cross station to Charing Cross. We saw Big Ben, the Houses of Parliament and Westminster Abbey from the train which was a bonus, on the way to Canterbury our next destination.

We had a great evening with Bob and a couple of his friends, Jesse and Susie at Deeson’s – a restaurant specialising in locally produced, traditional English food. It was lovely – I am so pleased to be back in England as there is so much choice for vegetarians. But the best part - aside from the witty repartee of course- was the piano player called Luke, apparently a Canterbury icon, who played all my favourite tunes and I came very close to singing along - I do love a bit of kareoke!

Today I visited some nice churches and of course the cathedral where Thomas Beckett was murdered but my pilgrimage was really to Marks & Spencers’ Food Hall. It is filled to the brim with yummy food for vegetarians (and for everyone else for that matter) and I was happy to see that it still as good as I remembered it. I also got excited going to Boots the Chemist – I don’t really know why – I must just be feeling nostalgic and pro-England.

Hugh is having a big day giving his talk and meeting with the people who are going to re-zone the English Channel (to stop over-fishing) and who are going to use MARXAN, his computer programme, to do it. I think it is very exciting to see how Hugh’s work is so used around the world. Tonight we are going to a ye olde English pub – the oldest in Canterbury – which sounds like a lot of fun – it really is such a hard life!