• Today we made our way out to the Italian Chapel, which led us out over one of the Orkney causeways in high wind. Yikes!. Fascinating stories and amazing sights, but crazy cold and wind through it all.
• Then we rolled back into town for the Orkney Cheese factory (with an informative video and view of the production floor...mmm, curds). We sampled some of the tasty matured cheddar and chatted with the front desk staff about peculiar roadsigns we had seen around the country.
• Next we went into the downtown area and parked to explore the Bishop's and Earl's respective palaces in downtown Kirkwall, and then St. Magnus cathedral (mostly completed in 1200 AD!) and Highland Park Distillery.
• We didn't have time for guided tours once back in town, so we just did some walking through and browsing, stop at a small Bistro coffee shop, then ran by Odin Stone to get a rare bottle of "The Ba'" 8 yr blended whisky (made at Highland Park and only found at this one store), then out of town to Stromness to catch our ferry. Whew!
• We pulled into Stromness early, so drove down main street. INSANELY narrow street for that seemed to never end, but I eventually found a place to pull an 8-point turn and get us out of there and back to the ferry.
• Ferry ride went smoother the second time, and watched a Scottish afternoon ladies’ program called The Hour...seemed ripe for SNL parody.
• Got off ferry in Scrabster around 6:30, drove on to Castletown, taking our chances that the Greenland would still be slow. Got to Greenland Guest House and rang the bell, but no answer. Called number suggested by the sign on the wall and found the family was at the son’s karate class, so we went to get dinner at a Hotel pub down the road. Decent burger, great pint of local ale, and a chat with some local fellow about the Lochs and boat trips. Talking to and getting advice from random people has been a large part of the fun in this trip, and this guy was no exception. It was fun too to listen to the guys in the other room watching football and going nuts. Seems the end of the travel season is the PERFECT time to be here.
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