Day 11: Hoy: A hot date with an Old Man...

I can't even begin to describe it. When you see what you think may be the most beautiful thing you'll ever see in your lifetime, it's impossible to put it into words what you saw or how you felt about it. The photos don't come close to capturing the... I don't even know where to start.

Here's a glimpse of the time leading up to it... If you don't know what something is, google it. You can't take 2 steps on these islands without walking across relics or stories from a dozen different centuries.

And our little rental car was so cute:

With the doors open, it reminded me of the movie Cars with the VW bugs flying around:

And then we were on our way...

And then we drove to Stromness, drove down some really narrow streets, and ate the best fish and chips on the face of the earth. Yes, we were hungry, but it was damn good!

Mom was on the phone with Dad, and she made a comment that came the closest to capturing the experience: "It was hard to look at it. It is just so breath-taking that it makes your heart hurt."

Day 10: St. Magnus Cathedral and Kirkwall

It’s difficult to fathom the depth of history, especially my own, once I get beyond the generations that are real to me. The people I’ve known, seen photos of, or heard talked about since I was a kid.

Our visit to St. Magnus Cathedral was awing and incredibly confusing. Built in the 1100s, it has spanned an incredible length of time. A visit later in the week to Skara Brae, a nearby prehistoric settlement, would give it more perspective—man on the moon, telegraph, American independence, Crusades, time of Christ, Giza, standing stones and henges, dinosaurs, fish fossils, etc. According to scientific research, our time in Orkney spanned more than 250 million years, although most of it was within the last 5,000 years. Even still. St. Magnus Cathedral was built just under 1,000 years ago, so the idea of 5,000 years ago is simply beyond me. Probably why I wasn’t a history major.

To calm my overactive brain waves, I settled in for some shopping at M&Co. just down the block from the Cathedral. While the town grew up around the Cathedral, it seems to have kept a respectable distance. (I was expecting something more like the Pantheon in Rome.) I bought 2 sweaters and a scarf, and Mom bought a sweater. Then we retired to the Peedie Hostel for hot cocoa and a long rest on a short bunk bed.