Sailing…takes me away

And, please don’t refer to that song as Yacht Rock, or Donald Fagen might curse at you.  Today we are to take the ferry to the Orkney Islands.  As we had a firm sailing time reservation, and the terminal was about a 3 hours drive from our B&B, we had an abbreviated breakfast, which they were wonderful to accommodate.  Carrie kept us on schedule, and as we had already loaded up the car, we were able to leave right after breakfast.

The drive went really well, so smoothly, in fact, that for a significant part of it, I was either the only one awake, or it was just Carrie and me (I guess it is rather important that I am always in the “conscious” group).  We did pass by several spots we want to see, but we will be driving back this way once we leave Orkney, so we will stop then.

We got to the ferry plenty early, so we hung out in the terminal, and relaxed in the car until it was time to load the boat.  We got the car loaded on the boat, and went upstairs to claim some seating.  Luckily, there were some good tables near the cafe.  We were also a bit peckish, so that was fortunate.

We got a light lunch, and sat to enjoy the trip.  Carrie and Pat went out to the aft sun deck to get fresh air, and take pictures.  As we got close to the Old Man of Hoy, Walt went out to a viewing deck to join in the picture fiesta.

As we approached the dock, we lumbered downstairs to get in our car.  There was a lift available, and a lady was waiting for it.  Pat, Walt and Rosanna joined the queue.  The ferry locks down the car park stairs and lift while at sea, as you can’t be down with the cars while it travels.  The lift light came on, so they thought it was open for business.  It was a small lift, so Carrie and I went down to wait for the stairway door to open.  We looked over at the lift on our level, and saw that the lift was there, with the doors closed.  We saw it go back up to the higher floor, and heard Pats voice from above.  Apparently, they jumped the gun a bit, and the elevator would only bounce between those two floors.  We all waited together to go down the stairs, and get in our car.

We drove off the ferry and to our B&B.  It is AWESOME.  After last nights hotbox, ours had windows (that actually opened) up to a beautiful sea view.  I purposely left the windows open while we were going to be out seeing the island and having dinner, so when we ended up returning, the room was beautifully cool with crisp sea air.

Our first stop after dropping off our stuff at the B&B was St. Magnus Cathedral in Kirkwall, a mere 5 minute drive from our lodging.  It is a super-historic church that was started in 1137, and took hundreds of years to complete.  It is beautiful, and still in use.  We got an extra blessing when we entered, there was a string quartet practicing for a performance that evening.  We sat and listened, and were all impressed at the pianist - awesome!

We left there and went to visit the Italian Chapel, a place Carrie and I weren’t able to visit last time, because we got there after it closed.  It is the last remaining building of a POW camp from World War II.  This particular camp housed Italian POWs, most of which came from the North Africa campaign.  While imprisoned, they were allowed to decorate the generic building provided for a church.  What came from that was a beautiful, hand-painted homage to Italian cathedrals.  In 1960, the artist who painted all the murals was invited back to refresh the art and restore some parts.  It was pretty spectacular what people can accomplish, even in desperate times.

We drove around a little more before heading back to Kirkwall to have dinner.  Earlier in the day, Carrie had called to make reservations, as is often required in tourist destinations.  They were supposed to call her back to confirm, but never did.  She did follow up, and the told here that they were fully booked, but if we wanted to drop by, they might be able to accommodate us.  I dropped Carrie and Pat off at the restaurant to see if we could get a table, or if we would just order takeaway, and eat back at our B&B.  They were able to squeeze us in, and we had a very nice dinner of pizza and pasta, with some nice appetizers.

Walt and Rosanna had seen something they wanted to check out while I was circling, waiting for word from Carrie, so we walked there to see if it was picture worthy.  They said it wasn’t worth the walk, but it was probably good to burn off some of that Italian dinner.

Back in the car, we went back to Aultnagar, our B&B.  It has been another great, sunny day in Scotland.  I think our run of weather is about to change….stay tuned.