Have camera will travel

Our new tour guide banged on our door at 6:15 to wake us up. After breakfast we were off to the Orkney Islands for a tour. Nice looking day, some clouds but mostly blue sky, slightly cool.
The new guy is trying to set some rules about promptness, after today, it doesn’t look like it is working. We were lucky that the ferry was a charter for us.
After a 45 minute ferry ride we boarded a bus, and a bus it was for our tour. We had a local guy show us around. First stop was the Highland Distillery. We had a wee dram to taste and then a tour of the place, with a stop at the gift shop to get out.
We stopped at the Italian Chapel. This was made from 2 Quonset hut from WWII. It was painted on the inside to look like brick and marble, and it did. Small chapel built by the Italians. After that we stopped at a stone circle, out in a farmers field, with only a few stones left standing. We then drove by a much bigger stone circle with 27 of the 54 stones standing. It started to rain!!
From there we wandered off to a restaurant for a sandwich and chips. Onward to Skara Brae and Skaill House. Skara Brae are ancient ruins dating back to before just about everything else in the world. We wandered through a replica house, and could go down to see the real ones that they are excavating. We opted to go through the Skaill House instead, as the rain was getting heavier.
Because we had taken so long to do all these things, we only had 1/2 hr in the capital – Kirkwall. There were 2 old castle ruins where we parked the coach. We looked at the outside and decided to go to St. Mangus instead. What a beautiful cathedral! Very very high ceiling and large columns. We only spent about 15 minutes in it, too bad.
Now it was raining steady, so we scrambled onto the bus and headed back to catch the ferry back. The Pentland Firth, where the North Sea and the North Atlantic join one another, was not that choppy. On the way over it was almost like glass, except where you could tell the 2 seas where combining,it looked like it was boiling.
We clambered back on the coach and everyone was so glad to see our driver and coach waiting for us. It was still raining in Wick when we got back. We almost ran into the hotel and flipped a coin to see who got the warm bath first – I lost. Once we were warm we headed to the lounge and talked to our new tour guide. We picked our optional trips and then headed for supper.
The food was delicious again. There was some mix up as the new guy thought it was my birthday, so we had birthday cake after supper. We sat around in the lounge for a while laughing and chatting, and then tottled off to bed, as we have an early wake up call.
I think this will be a much more disciplined tour after today.