Wednesday, September 07, 2016

Wednesday 7th September 2016.......The dreaded Bus Tour!!!

I wanted to go visit the Orkney Islands and in research figured the best way was by way of an organized bus tour and that is what I did today.....I left the house at 8 am and drove 35 km to the northern most town in the UK...John O' Groats!!

 A neat statue on the pier...



 Along with 34 other tourists boarded the ferry for the 40 minute ride to the Orkney's!!!!

The bus driver filled us with interesting facts on the drive to out first stop where we were allowed 90 minutes to browse the town........some interesting sights but 45 minutes would have been enough!!!





 What a gorgeous flower!!

Back on the bus for the next stop...the weather was clear at first but now it started to rain a little...

I really enjoyed this walk around the small village and can you imagine the thrill on finding this after all those years!!!

Not everything in this shot below is 5000 years old....can you find WALDO????


Found him yet???

Onto the next stop....


Walk among the enigmatic stones of one of the most spectacular prehistoric monuments in the British Isles. The Ring of Brodgar Stone Circle and Henge is an enormous ceremonial site dating back to the 3rd millennium BC.
The Ring of Brodgar comprises:
  • A massive stone circle, originally consisting of 60 stones – 36 survive today
  • At least 13 prehistoric burial mounds
  • A large rock-cut ditch surrounding the stone circle
The Scottish geologist Hugh Miller, visiting in 1846, wrote that the stones ‘look like an assemblage of ancient druids, mysteriously stern and invincibly silent and shaggy’.
The Ring of Brodgar is part of the Heart of Neolithic Orkney World Heritage Site, a series of important domestic and ritual monuments built 5000 years ago in the Orkney Islands.





Our bus driver told us that one of the things that has baffled the historians is what happened to the earth they took out of the huge ditch,,,normally it is used to form a bank around the circle but not here!!!

Our last stop of the tour was this lovely chapel!!







These look like tiles but in actual fact are hand painted squares!!~!
That was the tour as we headed back to the ferry and I was home by 7.00 pm.....I enjoyed the afternoon and the sites but being really honest felt the tour was about a 6 out of 10!!!!

Had a light supper and a quiet evening...I am staying here till Friday and tomorrow will do some hiking and exploring in the area!!

Yashi Kochi!!!

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