Last Week in Orkney

It's already that time, and the second week in the Orkney Islands were a busy one. Steve and Jenny wanted to make sure that we saw and did everything that we wanted to do.

Monday we got the afternoon off of school to explore the city of Kirkwall. We went around to the little shops and I found a great music/movie/comic book store. That night, we went kayaking in a Loch close by the house. It was interesting to kayak in calm waters as I have only gone along a moving river. Overall, it wasn't bad and I improved my form since I must have been doing it wrong all this time. 

 Saint Magnus' Cathedral

 Up close of the spire 

 Inside of the cathedral 

 They had beautiful stain glass windows

 The columns were spectacular!

 More examples of the stain glass

 Norwegian bible inside

 These used to be tomb tops that laid on the ground, but now they are on the side walls

 Examples of tombs inside

Tuesday we went with P6 (5th grade) to the Bishop and Earl's Palaces. They are acting as tour guides for incoming schools that come to the mainland. They were completely in costume and did a great job with their parts. 

 The Earl's Palace

Inside of the Bishop's Palace

Also on Tuesday, Jenny took us over to Scapa Flow and we saw the Italian Chapel. During the WWII, Orkney held Italian prisoners of war on the island. The prisoners felt that they needed a place of worship that was their own, so they used an old air raid shelter and painted it to resemble the inside of a chuch.

 Information about the Italian Chapel

Constructed by Italian POW's on the island. Made out of an old air-raid shelter 

 EVERYTHING on the inside is painted

 All of the metal work is made out of tin cans and such

 So gorgeous!

 These are painted bricks--they look so real!

We also drive on the Churchill barriers. German subs were able to get around the different islands and they needed a way to protect themselves. They decided to build the barriers that would connect island and island. Since the prisoners of war could not do any military work, they disguised the project as a labor one for bettering the island and they made a road on top of them. You are able to still see the remains of broken and destroyed ships.

 Driving across the Churchill Barriers

 It was very foggy so you can just make out the massive stones on either side of the road

Old ship remains

Wednesday was the second time trial for cycling. The wind was a bit less than last week and I came away with a time of 46.10 minutes! That is a four minute improvement! It felt great! 

Today, we went out sailing (hardly any wind and a bit of a dreary day) and we went with Steve to do races with the sailboats. It was very cold but we did well and I was somewhat useful...