Norwegian Jade - Fjords Cruise 25 August - 3rd Sept- Day 8- Kirkwall

[Jack Staff]

The Jade had sailed overnight across the North Sea and we had breakfast as we watched the outer Orkney Islands pass by -the cloudy weather had returned and so the seemed bleak and interesting.

 

We docked at 11 am. at the small cruise terminal at Kirkwall and enjoyed watching a crane put the gangway in place. The Kirkwall/Orkney flag is similar to Norway's flag but has yellow in place of white.

 

There were no tour or HoHo buses apparent at the terminal that had an Information Centre but free shuttles into the small city were available - we decided to walk as its only about 25 minutes. On the way we passed a stall advertising chicken curry for £3.60.

 

 

 

Kirkwall is a small town and we found the Visitor Information centre alongside the bus station.

 

As we wanted to visit the Ring of Brodegar we joined what was a small line/queue at the appropriate bus stop to catch the local bus. The line grew bigger and then a single deck bus pulled up and the line disintegrated as people tried to get on, it seemed that there would not be room for all. Matters were made worse as there was a large party in line and one person was buying all the tickets however the party were strung out in the line which caused some confusion but the bus driver handled matters well and soon we were squeezed onto the vehicle.

 

The driver was very good and dropped us all off at the junction on the A965 (Stromness Road) and the B9055 and we all walked towards the stones. After about 15 minutes we came to a small set of stones - The Standing Stones of Stenness (4 stones that are all that remains of a ring of 12 built about 5000 years ago) - on the way we saw seals basking - it was busy here and after a look around we continued to the Ring of Brodgar :

 

 

36 stones remain out of 60 they stand in a circle and there are prehistoric burial mound near.

 

We retraced our steps back to the A965 to wait for the local bus back to Kirkwall - the scenery was interesting:

 

 

I suggest that it is preferable to pre-book a tour of the area as it will then be possible to see more.

 

At Kirkwall we could not enter St Magnus cathedral as a wedding service was going on so we went around the corner to the Earls and Bishops palaces and enjoyed those sites.

 

The Earls Palace

 

 

The Bishops palace with the tower of St Magnus Cathedral in the background.

 

Tonight we had dinner at Alizar and the theatre show was 'Elements' and featured some of the acts that had performed previously - it was OK.