Orkney

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May 18th 2024

Published: May 18th 2024

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ClairesTravel

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view as we were coming into port

We had breakfast in the room since we had an early excursion plus Susan had to get to medical center early to get her stiches out. Our first excursion was the included one that we finally got confirmed on yesterday.

The tour drove through the countryside and we saw many sheep and cattle but no trees. The baby lambs were so cute. I could see them jumping and playing. The countryside was very green with rock fences but there were no trees since the winds can get near 100MPH often. The hills had large patches of brown and the guide said that heather grew there in the fall. I can just imagine the blue and purples on the hills. We saw some burial mounds that were several thousand years old and then we came to our first stone circle. This one was smaller and many of the stones were missing since a farmer in the 1800s destroyed several of them. We then stopped at the Ring of Brodgar that was huge and had many standing stones and a henge (dug out ground around the stones) This set of stones and the smaller one

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are much older than Stonehenge. We then drove to the city Stromness. It is a cute little town with stone buildings. We walked around the town for a bit. Afterwards we drove through more of the countryside and came to Scapa Flow. This is the 2^nd largest protected bay in the world and was home to a portion of the British Fleet during WW1 and WWII. After WWI, the German fleet was stationed in the bay awaiting the final peace treaty when the Germans scuttled the 70+ ships to keep them out of British hands. The bay was huge. On the drive back to the ship we even saw a pill box that was used during WWII.

Once we got back to the ship, we ate then prepared to go on our next outing. It seems the Orkney Islands have a lot of history and we took the ancient history tour. The main stop was to Skara Brae and the Skaill House. Back in the mid 1800s there was a huge storm that uncovered some of the sand dunes in front of the Skaill House. There was a 3000BC village that was uncovered. This village was built

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in the fall the darker areas of the hills are covered with Heather. i bet it's beautiful

with stones and into the ground like hobbit houses. The area was excavated over the years and is now open to the public. It was amazing how well it had been preserved. It seems they have found other locations similar to this that are also being excavated. We also toured the Skaill House and it’s 1800’s furnishings. We then headed back to the ship and our excursion was the last to arrive. The ship left shortly after we arrived.

After dinner we went to the show. It consisted of songs from Broadway and the West End.

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