UK Trip December 2015 - Part 11 - Tour of St Andrews University

Continuation from: UK Trip December 2015 - Part 10 - Exploring St Andrews, Scotland and Ice Cream!

We then went to visit the University. Below is the international centre.

Below is one of the halls of residence.

At the moment practically empty as it was Christmas break.

A standard cluster of rooms consist of 5individually rooms in a locked corridor.

A typical room comes with internet, TV and attached bathroom.

Standard queen sized bed as a table.

Each cluster has a complete kitchen with living room set.

Well equipped.

The main entrance.

A shot of a top floor of one of the faculties we visited.

Many of the faculties are located at old houses.

The town of St Andrews is practically owned by the University.

Here is another halls of residence that Prince William stayed.

One of the colleges in the University. St Andrews University does practice the same college style setup as Oxford and Cambridge.

This is the old library section of the University.

St Mary's College.

Our tour guide explaining the history of the University.

To be continued.

UK Trip December 2015 - Part 10 - Exploring St Andrews, Scotland and Ice Cream!

Continuation from:

UK Trip December 2015 - Part 09 - Albany Hotel, St Andrews, Scotland 

Next morning we started early to explore the small town of St Andrews. Typical British weather, dark and gloomy. Even the townspeople tend to stay indoors.

The gang with warm clothing on.

The city of St Andrews is not that big at all. Here is the map of the town. I guess you can cover the whole 'city' withing half a day of just walking.

Off we went.

Some ruin castle near the sea.

Was told that in summer, stage shows are held here.

The beach looks rocky. Unlike our sandy beaches in Malaysia.

I bet in summer this place would look just beautiful.

A typical street in the city.

The tea shop where Kate met Prince Williams.

The opera.

Every city review we visited, The Jannettas Gelateria was mentioned as the 'must-visit' place in St Andrews. Despite it being a cold December, we were in the mood for ice cream.

There are tons of flavours. We got the proprietor to choose the most sort after. We were not disappointed. A cup of hot chocolate can never go wrong too.

This was after we went through the town.

No rush, so we enjoyed sitting in the nice comfy ice cream parlour.

A family photo.

A typical creation - a sundae.

To be continued.

UK Trip December 2015 - Part 09 - Albany Hotel, St Andrews, Scotland

Continuation from:

UK Trip December 2015 - Part 08 - Train ride to St Andrews, Scotland via King's Cross Station to Leuchars Station via Virgin Trains East Coast Company

We finally reached out hotel, the Albany Hotel which we found from Bookings.com.

A quaint hotel converted from a couple of link houses. The view outside one of the kids' rooms.


The hotel from the other side of the street.



Although the building is old, everything in the room is modern including the washrooms. There is also wireless WiFi in the rooms.

We had to take 3 rooms for our two day stay in St Andrews. Two to a room except for the third room which is a single room.

There are 3 floors which means only stairs to access the rooms - tight ones.


The hotel has a common room with a real fireplace.

Here is where one can relax and read the papers. There is also a small bar.
The rooms came with breakfast. Since it was close to Christmas, there were a lot of decorations. My son had some fun with one of them.


The breakfast is a classic Scottish style with cook fish etc.

Haha, found a brand of TV called "ISIS" in the hotel.

To be continued.