Travel entry June 6, 2012 Or The beauty in the starkness of the Orkneys
St Margaret’s Hope is a church built in the Orkneys. It was built for the Italian prisoners of war. They were asked to assist with building the bridges between the islands and some roads during the road. They said that would go against the Geneva Convention; however, the Scots argued that this was just assisting with infrastructure. So the Italians agreed to help as long as they could have a church. So the army gave them two structures and they joined them to make a church. Inside, they have painted the inside with such detail that the tiles look real.
We got to visit the Highland Park distillery and learn how whisky is made (that would be scotch to the rest of us). Fascinating process – love the smell of peat, but not the smell of yeast. We got to see a bottle of whisky worth $6200 Canadian. Whoot!
We saw the Stenness Stones – the Scottish Stonehenge. We drove by the Ring of Brodgar and then visited Skara Brae and Skaill House – which were fascinating. Skara Brae is a settlement from 5000 BC; the skill of the people from then was stunning – the building of tunnels underground to join the buildings so you wouldn’t have to go outside, the shelves built into the walls, completely awe-inspiring.
In the middle of the loch by Skara Brae and Skaill house is Ubby Island. A servant at Skaill house, Ubby, wanted his own island, so every night he loaded up his little boat with rocks and dropped them at the same place in the loch until there was enough to make an island. He covered it with turd and called it his. When he knew it was his time, he gathered some friends who went out and sat with him. He died on his island and rumor has it his ghost haunts Skaill house.
Lunch as at a hotel restaurant, where I had the haddock and chips and D had the scampi and chips as well as a Tennent beer. We had a great conversation with Michael – he was a props master on True Blood. Cool! He retired recently.
Just a note – the ferry is not fun! Thank goodness for Gravol ginger, an empty stomach, and willpower. (Editor’s note: I am really not sure if it was the ginger Gravol actually working or the fact that it tasted so utterly terrible to me that my body promised not to react to the rocking as long as I stopped feeding it this stuff! If you like ginger, you might like this. If you only kinda like ginger, prepare to think this is hideous… but it works. And the rocking of the boat - well let's just say the Atlantic Ocean meets the North Sea along the route - you can imagine the roughness.)
We got back to Thurso around 8ish – it was a hurry up to change and get down to eat. Supper was good – I had the potato and leek soup, veggie cheese pasta, and caramel honeycomb with whip cream. Num! D had herring, haddock and the same dessert and Tennent beer again.
We got to visit the Highland Park distillery and learn how whisky is made (that would be scotch to the rest of us). Fascinating process – love the smell of peat, but not the smell of yeast. We got to see a bottle of whisky worth $6200 Canadian. Whoot!
We saw the Stenness Stones – the Scottish Stonehenge. We drove by the Ring of Brodgar and then visited Skara Brae and Skaill House – which were fascinating. Skara Brae is a settlement from 5000 BC; the skill of the people from then was stunning – the building of tunnels underground to join the buildings so you wouldn’t have to go outside, the shelves built into the walls, completely awe-inspiring.
In the middle of the loch by Skara Brae and Skaill house is Ubby Island. A servant at Skaill house, Ubby, wanted his own island, so every night he loaded up his little boat with rocks and dropped them at the same place in the loch until there was enough to make an island. He covered it with turd and called it his. When he knew it was his time, he gathered some friends who went out and sat with him. He died on his island and rumor has it his ghost haunts Skaill house.
Lunch as at a hotel restaurant, where I had the haddock and chips and D had the scampi and chips as well as a Tennent beer. We had a great conversation with Michael – he was a props master on True Blood. Cool! He retired recently.
Just a note – the ferry is not fun! Thank goodness for Gravol ginger, an empty stomach, and willpower. (Editor’s note: I am really not sure if it was the ginger Gravol actually working or the fact that it tasted so utterly terrible to me that my body promised not to react to the rocking as long as I stopped feeding it this stuff! If you like ginger, you might like this. If you only kinda like ginger, prepare to think this is hideous… but it works. And the rocking of the boat - well let's just say the Atlantic Ocean meets the North Sea along the route - you can imagine the roughness.)
We got back to Thurso around 8ish – it was a hurry up to change and get down to eat. Supper was good – I had the potato and leek soup, veggie cheese pasta, and caramel honeycomb with whip cream. Num! D had herring, haddock and the same dessert and Tennent beer again.
posted by Taryn at 8:06 pm
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