We decided to try a short break in the October holidays, and somewhere over in the east side of Scotland seemed far enough to be interesting and close enough to mean the trip didn't take up all our time. We found a cottage in Auchtermuchty, the most Scottish sounding town anywhere, using Air-BNB. It was very modern and well equipped, and had a nice garden area with chickens as well as a few apple trees. A pleasant base for the duration. Our only difficulty was finding it, as it was up a wee farm road, but once we'd found it it was fine.
Auchtermuchty is a small town, so was easy enough to explore with a walk around the place. We found a statue to the great Jimmy Shand, hero of many a Hogmanay show, and a Chinese takeaway that sold big portions and had some lovely salt and pepper chicken balls. There isn't too much else nearby.
There was a decent walk up the farm road, which gave a good view over the town, and led past a quarry and through some fields with friendly sheep.
We had never been to Dundee, and it was a short hop away, so that was our destination for one trip. Cate was hoping to go to university there as well, so it was worth a look around. We had a wander round the indoor mall for a bit, then followed the statue trail. Dundee is famous for Comic books among other things, so there are statues of Desperate Dan, Minnie the Minx and Oor Wullie dotted about the city centre. Robert Burns was there too, but wasn't getting the same attention.
Claire was still waiting on her second hip replacement, so we couldn't walk too far. We had a big lunch and a quick view of the Discovery and the museum before heading back.
Next Day we visited St Andrews. We had a wander along the beach and around the town centre, and met one of Cate's school chums in a crystal shop. We drove on around the Neuk and had some chips from the famous Anstruther Fish Bar, before making our way back to base.
Friday was our last day, so we planned for another wee trip before heading home. However I woke up with quite a pain in my abdomen. A call to the doctor got an appointment for 4, and we headed off home early, with Claire driving and me mainly moaning. I got Claire to drop me off at A&E, where they dealt with me surprisingly quickly, and sent me back home with anti-biotics, which did the job.
So it was a bit shorter than planned, but a decent wee time away.