Another early day, but this gives us more flexibility after the tour to roam around a bit on our own.
Andy caught this photo while we were having breakfast and we entered the harbor of Kirkwall on the biggest of the Orkney islands.
Once on the bus, our tour guide told us that we’d have 2 stops: the first, at some standing stones, and then in the town of Stenness.
You’ll notice that the countryside is treeless – the Orkneys are too windy for most trees to survive, except for one grove where the landowner took the effort to care for the trees and protect them.
Our first stop was at the Ring of Brodgar. Other than dating back about 5,000 years, not a lot is known about these stones or their function.
So, this tour was rated “easy” – meaning little or no walking, and any walking would be easy on flat surfaces. Which is exactly what the path up to the stones was *not*. It was at least a quarter mile to the stones from the bus parking lot, uphill. And then, of course, back down the hill. Fortunately it wasn’t raining, because otherwise the path would have been rather slippery. We had 30 minutes to explore on our own – I knew that by the time I got up there, it would be time to turn around and come back down.
Andy was able to grab some good photos of the stones. Not quite the same imposing sight as Stone Henge, but a still a mysterious stone ring.
Back on the bus, next up – we’re on the road to the town of Stenness, where we had some time to wander around, sample some Orkney ice cream, and shop in the local stores.
Dr John Rae – a well known Arctic explorer – came from Stenness. Here’s his statue:
We did buy a few things (shopping has been sparse this trip so far), and then it back on the bus. When we arrived back at the port, we took the shuttle into “downtown” Kirkwall and then walked over to the cathedral.
The cathedral was built starting around 1100 – it’s been in use for about 900 years! Here is more info on the cathedral’s history: https://www.stmagnus.org/visiting-the-cathedral/history/
The interior is stunning, and unique – I don’t recall seeing anything elses like it in all the cathedrals I’ve visited over all my years of travel.
And, of course, the requisition exquisite windows.
One more amazing photo – I think this is the pulpit. I could be wrong (I’m not 100% familiar with church structures).
After we left the cathedral, we wandered a bit to see if there was some shopping to be done, but, no, not really. We walked back to the shuttle stop, and took the shuttle back to the ship.
Tomorrow: Edinburgh! Spoiler alert – we found out today that for some unfathomable reason, there’s no shuttle service between Edinburgh and the port (though there was a shuttle in Dublin that was just as far to the port as Edinburgh; we can’t figure this out and are a bit annoyed). We do want to wander a bit, so after confirming that cabs will indeed take passengers from Edinburgh to Rosyth where the ship will be docked, that’s our current plan.
Maryland Meshugas 