It’s our anniversary!

Up on a rainy day to our 41^st Wedding Anniversary! And they said it would never last! Ha!

We had planned a hike out to the lighthouse at Birsay to look for Puffins, but it was definitely too rainy for that, but we thought we’d drive out that way anyway, just to get the lay of the land for future reference. As we headed across the island, this time – surprise! A humungous cruise ship was docked at Hatston, about 2 miles north of Kirkwall! Wow! Who put that there? I knew cruise ships called at the Orkneys, but I didn’t know they would be that large. This one, the MSC Preziosa, carries 4,345 people, and it docked about 8 am this morning. (We were coming through there, about half an hour later.). Apparently, cruise ships can dock at two places on Mainland (what this particular island of the Orkneys is called), either at Kirkwall, the town in which we are staying, which has a much smaller landing facility, or the larger facility at Hatston. Which does seem to explain why all the spots for Maeshowe at least seemed to disappear from the reservations book for the rest of the month and half-way through June.

Robert was able to find a website listing all the Orkney cruise ship landings, and wow, there are no shortage! This week alone includes today’s megaship, then two ships on Wednesday, three ships on Thursday (including two different Viking cruises) and two more cruises on Friday! I stopped looking after that, as we’re heading back to the mainland on Friday, and won’t have to worry about coaches (tour buses) after that – at least on Orkney, at any rate! (Do have to say that the first time we say the posted sign saying: “No Football Coaches Allowed!” I couldn’t help thinking about somebody objecting to John Madden in his ubiquitous “Madden-Cruiser” – turns out what that actually means is, no buses with soccer fans allowed…not that I blame them!

Cruise ship in town with 4,000+ passengers

Stones of Stenness in the rain

Got out to the wild, wooly, windswept and very wet peninsula of Birsay and decided that yes, it was quite lovely, but no, a walk in the rain was not what we needed right at that moment, and that as we did have a few more days, we’d give it a try later on. The difficulty is that the causeway is underwater half the time, due to the tide, and one must be very careful NOT to find oneself on the wrong side of the land when the tide rushes in. So … for another day, obviously! From there, we headed to the Stones of Stenness, which we drove by yesterday, but were unable to find a place to park. This time, we did find parking, and also managed to avoid two very large tour buses, that pulled in, just as we were getting ready to leave.

The standing stones and especially the stone circles are fascinating. Why did people set up these huge stones? Why in a circle? How did they decide on the number of stones? We can only guess. Also, it is amazing that any of these monuments are still around after 5000 years. In the 1800’s, a farmer started knocking down the stones at Stenness but the local people put a stop to that. In fact, they were so irate, they tried to burn down his house!

Truly, so glad to be doing Orkney on our own terms, and not as part of a tour. This way, we both agreed, we can go back to our cozy cottage, I can take a nap, Robert and get some Caltech work done, and we can read and watch the telly and enjoy the rain until dinnertime, when we have a reservation at the Storehousewithrooms at 5:30 pm! So! Until later!

Much love,

xxx

The weather started to clear around 1:30 so we decided to take a drive to Scapa Flow, and see the Italian Chapel and drive across the Churchill Barriers to St. Margaret’s Hope. First, the Italian Chapel.

Several hundred Italian prisoners of war were housed here in the Orkneys in the later years of WWII. These men, captured during the North African campaign, were sent here to work on the Churchill Barriers, a massive series of concrete causeways to seal the eastern approaches to Scapa Flow. Robert is going to write more about that below. However, suffice to say that the Italians, living here in small Nissen huts in rather cheerless circumstances, soon transformed their surroundings with paths and planted flowers. One of their number, Domenico Chiocchetti, made the figure of St. George, the English patron saint slaying the dragon, out of a framework of barbed wire covered with cement. However, the camp still lacked a chapel, and this was something that the Italians badly missed. Gradually, over time, a new camp commander, working with a new padre, along with Chiocchetti, the prisoner who was also an artist, started working on a chapel. Using two Nissen huts (like Quonset huts, but smaller) they created an absolutely stunning chapel, using basically scraps of various materials and using the labor of the prisoners on hand. To say these men worked wonders with what they could find and salvage is to put it mildly. Robert’s photos show what look to be tiles, but instead, these were painted on the smoothed painted ceiling. For more information, I’d suggest a Google search, as this is definitely something well worth seeing. As I say, just amazing! And again, we were lucky that we were able to avoid the tourist bus, which pulled out just ahead of our arrival. Yeah!!

1st Churchill Barrier

Beautiful Italian Chapel

St. George statue

Now on to the Churchill Barriers!

Following World War I, 74 ships of the Imperial German High Seas Fleet were interned at Scapa Flow while their future was being negotiated at the Versailles Peace Conference. On June 21, 1919, German Admiral von Rueter, fearing the fleet would fall into the hand of the British, ordered the ships to be scuttled. The British were able to prevent several ships from going down but most went to the bottom, as the German sailors had prepared for such an order to scuttle being given. Several were later salvaged for scrap but several are still there, visited by divers.

During World War II, Scapa Flow was a main base for the British Home Fleet – their version of Pearl Harbor – a large natural harbor surrounded by the Orkney Islands. After the war began, on October 1, 1939, the German navy – the U-Boat command, to be precise – planned a raid on the British Fleet and assigned the task to Gunter Prien, commander of U-47.

There are a number of entrances to Scapa Flow, as there are many small islands here, and the British scuttled old ships (called “Blockships”) in the eastern channels to prevent entry. But Prien, using aerial photos, saw a way through Holm Sound and, on the night of October 14, slipped into the harbor and sent the battleship Royal Oak to the bottom with more than 800 of her crew.

To prevent future attacks, Winston Churchill (the First Sea Lord) ordered the eastern approaches to Scapa Flow sealed completely. Work started on the barriers in May 1940 and was not completed until September 1944 – after the Normandy Invasion. Four causeways were constructed, with much of the labor provided by Italian prisoners of war – a controversial step, since the Geneva Convention prohibited using POWs for war work but the English decided the barriers would enhance the civilian economy after the war and so the work was approved.

Wreckage in the channel

Looks like a totem pole!

In 1996, the British Home Fleet and the Mediterranean Fleet were merged to form the Western Fleet, now housed at Portsmouth, Clyde and Devonport, and Scapa Flow’s role as a naval base came to an end.

Now, out for dinner! Less than a 10 minute drive into town, with parking down by the wharf and then a short walk. Lovely restaurant: Store House with Rooms, and an excellent menu. I started with the Cajun sweet potato soup (which I want to make at home), and R started with their fresh local scallops. My soup, albeit very spicy, was really excellent, and came with homemade bread and butter. (That, however, I will purchase!). For mains, I ordered their fresh scallops with salad and chips. R ordered their 8 oz. rump steak, that came perfectly cooked, with roasted potato medallions, thin-sliced onion rings, broccolini and a brown sauce; also, a bowl of sweet potatoes and sauteed cabbage. Everything was absolutely excellent, and we enjoyed every bite – although honestly, there were seven very large scallops, and I couldn’t finish them all. They also came complete with the coral, and that I couldn’t even touch; just way too much food to eat! And, while I would have loved to have sampled their good looking dessert menu, there was absolutely NO room to put anything at all! So, back to the cottage about 7:30 pm and we are definitely in for the night! All in all, a truly lovely 41^stanniversary!! (Enjoyed the meal so much that we’ve booked in for our last night here, Thursday night, for a return engagement!)