A Wind around the British Isles

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Beautiful shots!

Gorgeous country!

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Mysty I think it was still too cold in the Orkneys and the puffins decided to put back their flights by a week or so.

 

Now back to some more Orkney flowers.

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And sheep.

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On the way back we passed a fellow cutting peat.

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Then the reason for the Shetland's prosperity last century.

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Black gold.

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Now a new industry.cutting up old oil rigs.

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And the golf course.

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And Shetland ponies.

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Heading back into town.

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Some fine old buildings in Lerwick.

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We had company in the port-Le Champlain and Marco polo.

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And in the middle of town.

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Dropped off in town.Had been told the Shetlands produce 80% of Scotlands mussels so tried to have them for lunch.Even went to the Information office who told us the best places were the Queen's or Grand hotels.Queens was closest.Sign in the Window said welcome guests of Le Ponant,Marco polo and Silver Wind.Open at 1600.Le Pomant had just left and the Wind's last shuttle was 1700.So went to the Grand.Sign there said Bar and Snacks open 5.30 pm.Ah the efficient Scottish tourism industry.Ended up going back to the ship and a late lunch of fruit.

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Fort Charlotte.

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Fishing fleet and local ferry.

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Back home.

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That night some local fiddlers came aboard.

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They were good.I did take a video but have been unable to load it so far so here is one of the songs they played courtesy of YouTube

 

 

About a Shetland's women who moved to NZ.Came back when her mother was dying.She had to leave before her mother died so this is the song written by the fellow regarded as Shetland's greatest fiddler Willie Hunter. Leaving Lerwick Harbour.followed by I love these Islands.

Please enjoy.

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Trivia and scraped into second but blitzed the putting with a 4 shot win!
Another lovely dinner with our neighbours in the next suite and an English couple.A perfect end to a delightful day.

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I had the steamed mussels.Rojaan had the lobster thermidor but an unusual presentation.

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I had the lemongrass beef and then we shared 3 desserts.

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[drron29]

The lights as we steamed out of Lerwick harbour.

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The next morning steaming into Kirkwall,Orkney.

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Breakfast in the suite again as going on tour.Did the highlights of Orkney tour.Drove around one side of Scapa Flow.Had an hour in Stromness the second largest town then stopped at the Ring of Brodgar-standing stones in a circle.A reasonable introduction to the Orkneys

 

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Off on our tour.

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One of their distilleries and first glimpse of Scapa flow.

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The Germans breached the defences with a bombing raid.One older ship was too sloww and left behind to offer some anti aircraft fire.It was sunk.The green buoy is the position of the wreck.

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Stromness across the bay.

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We reach Stromness.

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The cars are waiting and here comes the ferry.

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A pretty little harbour.

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And a Stromness Arctic Explorer much maligned as he reported evidence of cannibalism on the ill fated Frobisher Expedition.justified long after his death.

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There was a jazz festival the day we visited.Nothing happened until we left unfortunately.

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The art gallery was free but nothing much.A beautiful view from their window though.

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Lots of little lanes.

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Seeing the Chinese restaurant reminded me of Paul Theroux in Macksville,New South Wales in Australia.He just couldn't imagine a talented Szechuan chef uprooting himself just to bring the delights of Szechuan cuisine to the people of Macksville.

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The streets in Stromness are very narrow,Doesn't prevent campervans and delivery trucks from driving through.Every now and then a street widens so 2 cars could pass.However that's where they let people park.

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Basically no one has ever liked taxes.

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The Khyber Pass was always on my bucket list!

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And a link to sunny QLD.

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Though I doubt she was as virtuous as she claimed.

The island named after her though is worth visiting.

 

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The orcas are teasing me again.

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And yes that delivery van has just stopped there.

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But we did share a very nice lobster roll with lots of lobster meat.

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[drron29]

Typical tourist humour.

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But they tell me the diving is really good here.After WW1 the German Fleet was brought to Scapa Flow to await the result of the Versaille conference.Their Admiral,probably correctly,didn't feel the Germans would be dealt with fairly by the Allies so ordered the fleet to be scuttled.

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We now set off to see some of Orkney's early history-the standing stones.

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This is a dig site that is only worked on in July.The tyres protect it from the elements for 11 months of the year.

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We had now arrived at the Ring of Brodgar.A lot less crowded than Stonehenge.

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Previously you were allowed to walk inside the ring.blocked now due to Climate Change.

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One woman was incensed that we only had 30 minutes at the Ring of Brodgar when one of the other tours had 1 hour.There was a Silversea staffer with the tour and she was asked to ring Silversea and demand we have an extra 30 minutes here.Most of us thought 30 minutes adequate as it was freezing.

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Now it was back on the bus to the ship.But passed some more standing stones on the way.

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This stone is important as it lines up with the entrance to a nearby burial mound.

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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maeshowe

 

There was a BBC program on this incredibly interesting area a few years ago.

 

http://www.bbc.com/travel/story/20151210-were-these-remote-wild-islands-the-centre-of-everything

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