Hey everyone!
Last night me, Lexi, Eunice, Cordelia and Rob all chipped in and made pasta with tomato sauce, ham and mushroom. Cost us about £1.50 each and was delish! Had such fun cooking and singing in the kitchen. Then we had a night in and we watched some 'New Girl' on my iPad.
This morning we had a bit of a lie in and then left at 9. On the bus ride Greg told us that in the town of Kirkwall we are staying in they have a traditional game every Christmas Day and New Year's Day called 'Uppies and Downies'. It's a bit like 'Capture the Flag' in that you have to get a ball to a certain area for your team. He said sometimes it goes for 5-6 hours and one year one team smuggled it in a pram pretending it was a baby! He said due to the small population here some people might work multiple jobs, eg driving the school bus in mornings and afternoons and working in the post office in between. Apparently someone stole a box of Mars bars from the honesty shop and it was the first crime here in 50 years too - haha!
Our first stop for the day was at some sea cliffs. To say it was very windy today would be an understatement - it was blowing a freaking gale! I got half blown over at one point and Lexi and I tried to run in the windy and it was like running on the spot!!
We then stopped at Skara Brae - a preserved Neolithic village dating back 4000 years. In the winter of 1850 a bad storm came through the area and ripped the grass and topsoil off the site, revealing to William Watt who lived in a mansion very close by the site we can visit today. It's older than the pyramids and Stonehenge and was properly excavated between 1928-31 by Aussie born Gordon Childe. The village was inhabited between 3100-2500 BC and it is a mystery why the inhabitants left! We watched a video, had a look at a display and then looked in a model house and at the actual site itself. Finally we went through William Watt's mansion which was lived in until 1991.
After another Orkney ice cream we then stopped at some more cliffs where there was a memorial to Horatio Kitchener who, on his way to a secret mission in Russia, hit a mine in his boat and 743 people on board died. Again - SO WINDY! Horrible!
We then looked in the ruins of an old palace built by Earl Roberts, the illegitimate son of king James V in 1574.
Our final two stops for the day were to some standing stones. Firstly we went to the Ring of Brodgar, a circle of 36 stones (originally 60) 104m in diameter ranging from 2.5-4m tall which is 4500 years old. Apparently there's a book and tv series called 'Outlander' that quite a lot of people on our tour like. The main character's name is Claire and she comes across a ring of standing stones, travels in time and meets a boy named Jamie. So there you go!! Greg told us to place our ear to the stones and see if we got any vibes. I didn't - so I musn't be the Claire from the book!
We passed an excavation site of a newly discovered other stone village and then made one last stop at the Stenness stones - these were huge and much taller than Brodgar!
Greg dropped us in town and I had my third Orkney ice cream of the day (we are trying to break his previous tour group's record!) and Lexi and I went for a wander. We went to St Magnus Cathedral and saw the boarded up windows to protect themselves from the ball game!
Tonight we are having a tour group pizza and beer dinner. Really good day today, I'm wrecked though!
Love to all
Claire
Xoxox
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