today takes us to leuchars…well, kind of. at 10:00 i’ve arranged to meet with colin allison from st andrew’s school of computer science, and from 14:00–15:00 i’ve agreed to give a seminar on our mobile computing research projects. after breakfast and having packed our bags again, mrs d and i walk together to the mathematical institute where i make my way to the new school of computer science building and mrs d goes for some more sightseeing followed by a walk along the west sands northwards.
everything goes just well, we have a nice chat and bring each up to date on what we are doing and colin even offers his help in locating a local store to buy a new printer for ms l (hers definitely went west having spent all summer in storage). we check out virtually every shop that might have printers for sale (i’d never have asked at woolworth) and finally get an HP printer from argus. colin drops ms l and me off at her residence — about half an hour later we have the printer up and running! it’s a bit past 13:00 and we rush off to join mrs d for lunch at the coffee house and tea rooms (6A Greyfriars Gardens, St Andrews, KY16 9HG, +44 1334 477122): a very nice and friendly establishment with good food, apparently also popular with the locals.
the seminar goes splendidly, and mrs d and i meet to make our way to leuchars — by (gasp!) bus. yep, as the fife coastal path from st andrews to leuchars pretty much follows the A91 all the way to leuchars (and onwards to st michaels), and as we really don’t fancy two hours of A road walking, we are taking the bus all the way to st michael’s inn, our b&b for tonight. we had hoped that it would be possible to walk the dismantled railway at least as far as guardbridge but that turns out to be impossible (from the bus we can make out that some private properties have taken over parts to the former track and we’d have been trespassing). so, half an hour later we are at st michael’s inn…
…”oh, dear!”…the inn is 200 years old — and looks like it. it certainly has excellent road connections: three busy A roads and a busy B road all convene at a roundabout right in front of the inn! fantastic if you are a travelling salesman…slightly less fantastic if you are walker who is looking for a quiet, peaceful b&b to have a quiet and peaceful night to have a fresh start into the last day of his walk. i certainly would not have inquired for a room to stay the night here. a couple minutes later we use a temporary lull in the traffic flow to cross the road and enter the inn…
the first impression is: hmm, must have been a busy lunch and they didn’t have time to clear all the tables (at least one table close to the bar with dirty plates, dirty glasses and cups, used paper napkins on the floor, all a bit dried in already). the young man working the bar is also doing duty as receptionist. unfortunately, it seems that he has never heard of contours, though he does find a booking for us — but then wants to have £ 75.00 for the room. LOL. “certainly not!” we explain to him that the room should have been paid already by contours; he looks sceptical but decides to show us to our room…
…which is, hmm, interesting:. it’s a twin room with en-suite facilities. it’s also facing to the front and, thus, to the busy roundabout, and it has the weirdest window configuration we’ve ever seen: just a couple of small windows up at the ceiling. to look out we have to climb the only chair in the room. “think: cave” comes to mind.
also, to our consternation we do not find our bags! so, i make my way down to the bar area again to root out the young man and inquire after our luggage. he’s not to be found (the lunch table is still as it was half an hour ago, though). eventually he materialises again and i inquire after our stuff: he just shakes his head and insists that our bags have not been delivered, “and i’ve been here all day”…sigh…not to be deterred, i suggest that he checks again and if they are really not here to call the b&b in st andrews (from the b&b in elie we know that each b&b has a list with our b&bs)…he disappears again — and about 10min later appears, sheepishly grinning, with our bags!
back in our room i decide to call contours to have them sort out the payment for our room tonight (eventually i get through even). after which both mrs d and i dig out our ipods and tune in to some loud music to drown out the traffic noise…
dinner is nolens volens in the bar downstairs. the lunch installation seems to have found a buyer as it’s gone when we come down. dinner is OK (we’ve had worse).
it’s a silicone earplug night tonight 
good day in st andrews, not so good evening in st michaels.
