Today is a day of firsts. Certainly the first time we have been in this place, Coffista in the Fife seaside town of Leven.  We got here by travelling on the brand spam=nking new,  Levenmouth railway. Closed in 1969 but reopened just two months ago. It was a miserable wet day so what else would we do but take a train trip? And if we made it to Leven by train that would be another first.

Good advice

Actually the day started with yet another first. It happened when  the two of us went to our local station and asked for  return tickets to Leven. The girl said a Falkirk/Leven return ticket would be a few pence short of £40. However, she said she could give us Falkirk/Edinburgh tickets then separate Edinburgh/Leven tickets for a total of £33.  We don’t understand either but it was the first time we had been offered this sort of advice … great! You end up with a bundle of tickets but a saving of £7 could pay for our scones.

And here’s another first. Although  the Forth Rail Bridge has been there all our lives, we had never actually been over it. Sailed under it, flown over it  but never over it on a train. The Edinburgh/Leven part of our journey would sort that.

It has to be said that this new Levenmouth railway only adds a further two stations after Kirkaldy –  Cameron Bridge and Leven itself. Not much you might think but it’s almost unheard of for any new stations to be added to the network so we regard it as fairly momentous. Also momentous for this part of Fife which was regarded as a deprived area. People can now live in Leven and easily commute in and out of Edinburgh. Even after just two months of its existence, there  are new housing developments  being built as a result of the railway. 

Spirits

We should mention the village of Cameron Bridge,   home to the biggest disillery in Europe.  It makes  Archers, Pimms,, Gordon’s and Tanquery gin as well as Smirnoff vodka. It also helps make Johnnie Walker, J&B, Bell’s, Black & White, VAT69 and White Horse whiskies. It’s on an industrial scale. and looks more like an oil refinery than a traditional distillery.

Leven, a town once famous for weaving, is in the Parish of Scoonie, Might this be an omen for our scone at Coffista? Considering “scoonie” means in Pictish,  “place of the lump-like hill” perhaps not. The cafe has only been going for a few months and is run by a very enthusiastic lady who bakes everything in-house. She even makes all the  jams! It had been raining but as soon as we entered the heavens opened. It was biblical!  We were extremely lucky to have just stepped inside. A warm welcome and then promptly being asked if we would like cream and jam with our scones looked like the good Parish of Scoonie might actually deliver. By the time we took our seats however, we were informed that there wasn’t any cream. Would we like butter instead?

Entertaining

 it was entertaining just being here … there was lots of chat. One old chap, obviously a regular,  insisted on telling jokes to anyone prepared to listen. Slightly obscure jokes seemed to be a speciality but thankfully, at least  he found them funny. Another elderly group were debating the life of batteries and how they don’t last as long as they used to. Maybe batteries become more important as you get older?

The owner was very proud of her steam oven and insisted on telling us all about it. Fairly technical stuff so we didn’t understand much of what she said. However, the scones did taste a little bit like they had been baked in such a device. Perfectly acceptable  but maybe just a little bit “damp”?  The £7 we saved on our rail tickets didn’t quite cover everything but it wasn’t far off. An enjoyable visit for all sorts of reasons but eventually it was time to brave the elements again.

Shelter

Because of the weather we decided against going to the beach. We would just take the next train back home, however, we arrivaed at the station just in time to see it leave without us … aargh! . An hour to wait for the next one so, considering the weather  we made a dash for the nearest pub. Turned out to be  one of these trendy steakhouse cocktail bars that specialises in BBQs. In spite of being just a few miles from the biggest distillery in Europe they only had only one British whisky and no British beers. Presumably it mustn’t be’ trendy’ to drink British? It was Expresso Martini for Pat and ‘the’ whisky for me. What is the world coming to?

In our recent post from the Orient Express we travelled on the Edinburgh tram system for the first time.  We’re getting good at these travel firsts. Just build a railway or a tram system and, if there’s a scone at the end of it, we’ll be there!

Bollards

What with Gaza, Ukraine, India, UK, Sudan, and the US  world politics is just too depressing  so here’s something a little different. Recently we had a visitor who announced he was going to Edinburgh to find “the bollard”. We had no idea what was talking about but he said he only knew about it through allaboutthe scones.com. Turned out it was the Edinburgh Press Club post to which he was referring.  The bollard in question marks the centre of the city from which everything is measured. As bollards go it might even be termed a topbollard? Extraordinary, some people are interested in things other than scones!

KY8 4FG         tel: 07415 759832          Coffista

///stencil.drawn.coaching