May 30/31

Still no photos.

May 30, at sea sailing up the west coast of Scotland and eventually across the top toward the Orkney Islands. The weather was okay until awe encountered fog in the early afternoon. The fog horn continued to sound at least until I went to bed. Here's hoping it clears for our visit to Kirkwall tomorrow,

As a sea day, it was essentially a day of rest. I didn't sleep in too late, but took my time getting out and about. I spent an inordinate amount of time trying to get the May 28/29 blog post and photos uploaded.  I've about had it with the whole process. It doesn't work well for me at all, especially with the slow connection at sea. Pfui. 

I had lunch today at the International Cafe in the lower level of the ship's atrium called the Piazza. It was quite pleasant listening to the fine string quartet playing there. They play quite a variety of musical genres which makes their performances very popular. Later there was a performance by a duo doing a balancing act. She handed things to him, and he balanced them on his forehead in various combinations. I didn't see all of that, but I imagine it gets more exciting in higher seas than we have had on this trip.

This evening was the first of two formal nights. Ray and Irene and I all looked pretty spiffy. Ray ordered a bottle of wine and we had a very good dinner, although not the usual formal night fare of lobster or "surf and turf." 

May 31 at Kirkwall, Orkney Islands. This was originally listed as a tender port, but there is a brand new pier built especially long enough for cruise ships about 2 miles from town. The most outstanding thing about the Orkney Islands is their almost total lack of trees. Every place there was a small copse of trees in a sheltered fold of the hills, our guide made a point of mentioning them. The second most outstanding thing is the huge harbor among the islands called Scapa Flow. 

Despite being at the same latitude as the tip of Greenland, the climate of the Orkneys is greatly mitigated by the Gulf Stream, except for today which was by turns cloudy, misty, cold. and very windy. Just before I went out for my tour, the temperature was about 46F, and I doubt it went up any. There is some wind power on the island, most of it smaller versions of windmills put up by farmers and other residents. Much of their electric power comes via cable from mainland Scotland 10 miles away. We did see a tidal power apparatus which had been pulled out up on the do k for repairs. It looked like a windmill built for Jupiter, very blocky and sturdy-looking.

I took a brief tour here, sort of a scenic drive around the island referred to as Mainland. We went through Kirkwall which is the capitol of the islands, then to see the Italian Chapel. This was built between 1942 and 1944 by Italian prisoners of war captured in North Africa and sent here to work on what's called "Churchill barriers" between some of the islands to keep the Germans out of the huge natural harbor called Scapa Flow where most of the British fleet was based. The Italians asked for a place to worship and were allotted two Quonset nuts which they joined together to make the chapel. They then created a facade for it and one man painted the inside in beautiful trompe d'oeil style. This photo is not the altar area which is beautiful, but neither is it tile and plaster work...it's only paint. Now most visitors to the Orkneys visit it. That's over 200,000 visitors a year to a group of some 67 islands, 20 of which are inhabited by a human population of around 21,000.

I don't know how many sheep or cattle there are per resident, but it's bound to be a lot. All the hillsides were neatly divided into fields by either wire fences or dry stone walls. Most fields were growing sheep or cattle, or bright green grass to feed sheep or cattle. It being late Spring, the calves and lambs had recently been turned out into the fields with their mothers, and many were actively gamboling as we went by. Very picturesque, but not very photogenic from a bus.

After the Italian Chapel, we went mostly around the island to reach the most famous area.of Neolithic remains where we saw the World Heritage Site called the  Ring of Brodgar Stone Circle and Henge, and the Standing Stones of Stennes shown here in a sheep pasture where you can walk right up to them (stones or sheep). We went past the newly discovered "Neolithic temple" at the Ness of Brodgar which was basically an excavation site covered in black plastic awaiting the arrival of another dig season. Then en route back to the ship, we passed the Maes Howe Chambered Tomb which mostly looks like a hump out in a field, but I understand has astronomical properties. These Neolithic sites are over 5,000 years old.

Have I mentioned often enough how huge this ship is? Here it is dwarfing the town of Kirkwall.