Fjords and Kilts and Hot Springs, Day 11 -- Kirkwall, Scotland

Day 11 -- Kirkwall, Scotland VERY windy, 55°

I skipped the gym this morning because one of our excursions was a walking tour of the town. So I slept in a little bit and then headed to Cabanas for breakfast. Blueberry pancakes with strawberry compote has become a staple, with a side of corned beef hash and (because I have no self-control) some bacon.

We met for our Walking Tour of Kirkwall excursion at 10:30 and took a short bus ride from the ship to the town. As we walked to the bus, we had to lean into the wind to keep walking. The wind was brutal by the water; and although it wasn't as bad once we actually got into the town, I couldn't help but feel bad for the people who had signed up for golf excursions. You come all this way and pay a couple hundred dollars per person to play a round in the birthplace of golf and then get unplayable conditions. I heard later that most people played four holes, at the most. I'm sure it was a beautiful setting, but those folks must have been disappointed.

Which leads me into our walking tour. While the town's highlights were great to see, it took our guide forever to get us to them. I loved seeing St. Magnus Cathedral, the Bishop's Palace and the Earl's Palace; but our guide was not as helpful as I would've hoped. It seemed like we stopped every 15 feet to look at a shop or a street with moderately interesting, but historically minor, details. But as I mentioned, this made it about 45 minutes before we got to the really interesting sites. This also caused the tour to go about a half hour longer than planned. Several people actually left the tour to explore the town on their own.

We all stuck with the tour and overall, I guess I'm glad that we did. Once we got into the Palaces, the guide did offer some interesting information. The Earl's Palace, in particular, was intriguing because of the extreme cost and the Earl's ultimate demise for treason.

Where we started the tour:

A couple of views of the town:

The cathedral:

Outer tower of the Bishop's Palace:

The Water Gate for the Palace:

Entrance to the Palace:

The Great Hall:

The Earl's Palace is directly across the street from the Bishop's Palace:

Kathryn and Molly in an upstairs balcony:

The main dining room of the Earl's Palace:

This is a study or bathroom off of one of the guest bedrooms upstairs:

The tour ended at about 1:30 and we took the shuttle back to the ship. When we arrived at the pier, these poor souls were playing for us in the windy cold weather:

We had some lunch at Cabanas, which included conch fritters and pan-fried dumplings -- both really good -- and some shrimp. After lunch, Kathryn took the shuttle back into town to do a little shopping and pick up a bottle of wine. Because the trip into town is so short, she was able to make it back to the ship in plenty of time for our second excursion.

Our second excursion of the day was the "Standing Stones and Dramatic Cliffs". We took a bus to a circle of standing stones called the Ring of Brogdar. It's estimated to be about 5,000 years old. Our guide gave us some history and some theories on why the stones were erected there, but when we arrived, we were on our own to wander around the circle (or inside the circle) for about 45 minutes.

After leaving the Ring of Brogdar, we drove to the sea and looked out over some amazing cliffs. From there, we could just make out the Old Man of Hoy, which is a rock formation, created by the erosion of the sea over the last few centuries. The views really were pretty dramatic.

This terrible picture is the best I could get of the Old Man. You can sort of make out his form on the right.

The tour was just about 2 hours long, and I really enjoyed it very much. Our guide was excellent and I felt like we weren't rushed to leave the standing stones, even with the excursion being relatively short. On our bus ride back to the ship, our guide told us that the mayor of Kirkwall had made a special request of the residents to come down to the pier to see us off when it was time for the Magic to leave port. I think they really appreciated having us visit and pump some pounds/dollars into the local economy. These folks came out to bid us farewell. It was really pretty cool.

We got back to the ship around 5:00 and immediately started getting ready for dinner. We were going to Carioca's for the final time of our cruise. My appetizer was a crab salad, which was good. It was lobster tail night and everyone got one as an entree. I also got the parmesan-crusted chicken, which I liked very much.

For some reason, that's all the information that I wrote down about our meal. But I took pictures. So here are a bunch of food pics from Carioca's:

My chicken:

The show that night was a solo performance by stage singer Michelle Mallardi. She has been in many successful touring shows. She played Belle in "Beauty and the Beast" and Maria in "West Side Story". She sang several numbers from Beauty and the Beast and Les Miserables, among others. Molly and Kathryn said she was great.

I'm not a huge fan of Broadway musicals, so I skipped this show and found some quiet music in Keys. After that, I got some ice cream on Deck 9 and watched a movie in the room before calling it a night.

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