Saturday and Sunday

Saturday - we arrived early in the morning at Kirkwell in the Orkney Islands. We again boarded buses & headed across the island to the ruins of the 5,000 year old village of Skara Brae which we toured with an excellent local guide. From here we visited the Ring of Brodgar, a circle of stones also dating back 5,000 years.

Next to the ancient village was an Angus beef farm owned by Mr Colin Davidson who apparently lovingly tended his cattle for which he had won prizes at the local agricultural show - and we thought he was looking after patients in Mont Albert!

The other very interesting history on the Orkneys was their role in WW11. A harbour area called Scapa Flow was used as a supposedly safe haven for the British Navy early in WW11 but unfortunately a German sub sqeezed through a gap in nets & barriers on one side to sink a large British warship with 850 lives lost. After that, Churchill, ordered solid secure barriers to be erected & these are still known as the Churchill Barriers.

We returned to the ship by lunchtime & then set sail for Leith which is the port near Edinburgh, the end of our cruise.

Most of the guests enjoyed a fabulous 5 course Captains dinner including soup, prawns, champagne sorbet, lobster & soufflé. However Jan was confined to her bed as the rocking/rolling North Sea once again played havoc with her stomach!!

Sunday - We docked by 6.30am in Leith & were transferred to our hotel in Edinburgh by 10. As our rooms weren't ready then, we 6 set off in exploration of the city. There were crowds of people as the Edinbugh Festival is on & so there was a lot of street entertainment. We felt that God graciously led us to some special experiences over the next 7 hours as we clocked up another 6km.

These special blessings included sitting in on the last 20 mins of a church service in an almost 1,000 year old cathederal where John Knox once preached and where the current minister was The Rev D Hugh Davidson; lunched in a very peaceful church cafe; visited John Knox's home; walked down the Royal Mile of shops & old buildings; took a bus tour of the city; had afternoon tea in the garden of Holyrood Palace - where the Queen stays when she is in Edinburgh & visited the Church she attends when she is here. We topped off the day with a pleasant dinner in a nearby wine bar & strolled in the evening light back to the hotel.

It was another special day.