The Final Countdown: Our last few days

We're finally back in Upstate NY (long, long travel story to tell you all at the end of this post!), but now it's time to look back and post some info and photos from when we were still across the pond but didn't have reliable internet.

We woke up in Kirkwall, Orkney and realized we had a huge list of things to do and only one day to do them in! We had to be at the ferry back to the mainland at 10am the next day, meaning that day was pretty much it. So, we listed out everything and strategized. We decided to do all the things we wanted to do in Kirkwall before heading west towards the neolithic sites.

First we went to St. Magnus (which, funnily enough, means "Saint Awesome") Cathedral, which was first built in the 1100s (though many generations have added to it over the years). It was a very beautiful church, and a practicing orchestra really set the scene nicely!

We then went across the street to the Earl's Palace and Bishop's Palace, which were both built in the late 1500s. Funnily enough, the Earl and the Bishop were political enemies, which must have been super awkward given the proximity of their houses! Do you remember the castle in Scalloway, Shetland? This is the Orkney castle for the same guy.

Earls palace:

Bishop's Palace interior:

We were told by the very helpful lady working at the palaces that we needed an appointment to see Maes Howe, which is a neolithic tomb we wanted to see. She helped us get an appointment, then told us the tide times for the Bay of Birsay (more on that later). So, newly needing to get out of the city to our appointment at Maes Howe, we had enough time for one more thing. So of course, we decided to go to a Whisky distillery!

After buying some Whisky to bring home with us (which is currently in our forwarded checked bags - stay tuned for that story), we headed out of Kirkwall to Maes Howe. It's a burial tomb that was built over 5,000 years ago! It's an intricate and well-made rock structure built into the earth, so that all it looks like on the outside is a mound.

The inside contains a large central chamber with three smaller side chambers. It also has some of the oldest recorded carvings, as well as some of the oldest graffiti! Turns out the Vikings found Maes Howe and broke in to take shelter from a snowstorm, and left their mark in the form of runic inscriptions on the walls. Some of them pretty much literally say "Leif was here", which we found hilarious given that they are now an artifact in their own right. We weren't allowed to take photos of the inside of the tomb, as they are trying to preserve the carvings and conditions in low light.

After Maes Howe, we travelled less than a mile to the Standing Stones of Stenness, which are kind-of like Stonehenge but even older! There are also only four stones left standing, but they believe there were many more at one point.

We then went only another mile to the Ring of Brodgar, which is another set of standing stones, this one in nearly a perfect circle (larger and older than Stonehenge) of around 30 stones out of a projected original 60. It was in the most beautiful location, right where two lochs come together (the Loch of Stenness and Loch of Harray).

After the Ring of Brodgar, we drove up to the northwest coast to the Bay of Birsay, which is a small nearly-island which can be accessed by foot only during low tide. But on the island is a Viking village, as well as some of the most amazing scenery we had this trip! It was amazing.

We spent hours just walking the coast of the island before we had to beat the tide back. And just to freak out our parents:

Remember how we said Sumbergh Head in Shetland felt like the edge of the world? Multiply that by 1,000 and you have the cliffs at the Bay of Birsay. It was absolutely amazing.

We then checked into our Bed and Breakfast, and then tried to go to the neolithic site of Skara Brae, only to find out that Morgan had read the hours posting wrong! (oops). It said they closed at 17:00, not 7:00, meaning they closed two hours earlier than we thought and we missed it. So, we decided to get some dinner and go to bed, and got up really early the next day to see Skara Brae before catching the ferry in the morning.

Skara Brae is considered to be one of the best preserved neolithic villages in the world, with one of the houses being so well preserved that they've closed it to the public to keep it that way. But this village, more than Jarlshof, really helped show what life was like. It's hard to remember that these people were huans no different from us! They were not cavemen, they had a sophisticated society and language and religion, and their daily life was not that different from ours. It was a beautiful site, and it was unfortunate that we didn't have as much time there as we wished.

Then it was time to rush to the ferry, and return to the mainland. Upon our arrival in Scrabster, we had what was supposed to be a five hour drive to Lanarkshire to see Morgan's friend Jennifer and her family, as well as our last Bed and Breakfast. However, a five hour drive became an eight hour one thanks to slow trucks and construction. It was a beautiful drive, but we arrived at Jennifer's two hours later than we expected (so sorry again, you guys!).

After a wonderful dinner with Jennifer and her family, we headed to our bed and breakfast. We got a little lost, and after being already hours behind schedule, we got there very late and kept the poor owners up waiting for us. They were so incredibly kind, but we felt really bad about it. Especially because we had to get up at 5:45 the next morning to make our flight. We wished we could have stayed there much longer, it was one of the most beautiful and accommodating of all the places we stayed (The Weston Organic Farmhouse).

Alright. Get ready for a long story about our trip home!

We woke up at 5:45, and our car was nearly out of gas (like, had maybe 30 miles left). We had to drive 20 minutes in the opposite direction from the airport to get gas, or we probably wouldn't have made it! We got to our plane right as they were boarding, and breathed a sigh of relief. We arrived in Paris without a hitch, to find that our flight to New York was delayed an hour and a half! We had to SPRINT through the JFK airport, and we juuuuust made it to our 5:40 flight to find that between the time we checked the gate at customs to the time we got to the terminal the flight had been delayed until 8:00. Okay, so we settled down to wait. Luckily, Tyler checked the board around 6:45, to see that the flight had been moved up to 7:00 and switched gates, all without any sort of announcement! So we moved to the new gate, and got on the plane about 15 minutes later.

The plane left the gate, and the sat on the runway. And sat. And sat. For three hours. It was horrible. You read those stories about people stuck on planes for hours but you can't imagine how bad it is until you live it. It was stuffy, and smelly, and people we getting antsy. Morgan started having a bit of a panic attack from feeling claustrophobic.

Thanks to the law about keeping passengers on the tarmac for too long, they had to bring us back to the gate after three hours. To our horror, they at first said they were going to sit at the gate, then go right back out to the tarmac without letting us off (apparently the law only says they have to go back to the gate, not that they have to let us off). But luckily they found out the toilets were full, so they had to let us off so they could empty them.

We sat in the airport in limbo for about an hour, before they finally cancelled the flight. They also cancelled all other flights that were going West due to an approaching storm, meaning the line to get rebooked was a nightmare. It came down the line the the next available flight to Syracuse was not until SATURDAY (this was Thursday night) and that they weren't doing anything to pay for hotels because they could claim the weather was beyond their control (sure, but the three hours delay was not because of weather, so we wouldn't have hit weather if we had left on time!). A small group of us from the same flight found out together in horror that we wouldn't get home for another 48 hours. At this time Tyler and I had been awake for nearly a full 24 hours. The thought of being stuck in New York City for two days was too much to bear. The group of us then decided that we would band together, and we rented a car!

We drove all through the night, getting the rental car around 1:00am (taking a bus to the rental place through NYC at midnight was...interesting). We finally arrived to the Syracuse airport around 6:30am. One of the people with us lives in Camillus (about 10 minutes from Skaneateles, for those of you who are't from around here!), so he was kind enough to drive us to Tyler's mom's house. We said hello to the dog, and promptly fell asleep. We had been awake for 31 hours at this point.

We are now in Skaneateles, slightly better rested. Tomorrow we drive home to Ohio. It has been a really long couple of days, but totally worth it for that trip. It was an incredible experience and we cannot wait to go back again.

Last day

We had a long day of driving today, which was not helped by the terrible traffic and construction. What was supposed to be a 5 hour drive ended up taking 7.5! We finally made it to our Bed and Breakfast in Lanarkshire, after keeping the poor owners up waiting for us. They were so incredibly nice, and we feel awful about it. We don't even have time for a proper post today, as we have to get up at 5:45 to get ready to go to the airport! So I guess we'll have to do one giant post in the airport or on the plane, if it has internet.

But we'd like to just take a moment to thank everyone who had a hand in this trip, from our family who are helping us pay for it and are taking care of our pets, to the friends who have opened their homes to us, to the accommodating and wonderful hosts at our sleeping places, and in general the lovely people of the United Kingdom. It has been a wonderful, amazing experience.

And with that, we bid you good night!

On our way back to mainland Scotland

We didn't have internet access at our B&B last night, so we're just checking in on the ferry between Stromness, Orkney and Scrabster, Scotland to let you all know that we're still doing great! We will try to do a full post tonight for yesterday and today (assuming of course that we have internet tonight)!

Jennifer, we should be on schedule to get to you around 6 or 6:30 tonight. Hopefully that still works for you!

It's crazy to believe that our trip is almost over! Tomorrow we get up early to catch our plane and should be back in NY by 7:30 EST.

Morning in Shetland and a Ferry Ride to Orkney

We woke up this morning in our ginormous suite (seriously, did you see the photos from the last post?), and had the breakfast provided in the fridge (cereals, yogurt, granola bars). We then checked out of the hotel and readied ourselves for another day of driving around beautiful Shetland. We first drove the five minutes back to Scalloway Castle (which we had tried to see yesterday but it was closed), and we're glad we went back for it! It was a small castle, built in 1599, but also really cool, and very much what I think of when I think quintessential "castle".

After the castle, we drove north towards the northernmost part of the main island of Shetland, a direction we hadn't gone yesterday. So, we have ourselves many more gorgeous photos of scenery with which we will now spam you!

Then, we decided it would be fun to drive aaaallllllll the way back down to the southernmost tip of the island (about 1.5 hours drive), Sumburgh Head. It really does feel like standing on the edge of the world.

And of course, Tyler got a little silly...

There were also Puffin nests there, but they did not like the camera! The best picture we could get of one was its back as it popped back into its nest in the side of the cliff.

Then it was time to catch the ferry to Kirkwall, Orkney. And of course, the ferry provided countless shots of beautiful scenery, as well.

And here is our last glimpse of Shetland, which is the very cliff at Sumburgh Head that we had stood on just hours before!

After a five hour cruise (during which the water was very choppy and Morgan got a little green around the gills), we got our first look at Orkney just as the sun was setting.

Tomorrow we have a full day to explore Orkney, and on the docket are St. Magnus Cathedral, Kirkwall Castle, Birsay Castle, the Ring of Brodgar, and Skara Brae! So excited!

Another mini-update - FOOD!!

We forgot to mention the trip north to Brae in the last post! It was more of the same in terms of breathtaking scenery (the type where you pull over suddenly just to get a good picture and stare for awhile), and on the way we found Shetland Jewelers. We grabbed a couple of souvenirs there, and continued on to Brae and dinner.

We had dinner at Frankie's Fish and Chips, which was not overexaggerated in terms of how delicious the fish and chips are. We gave ourselves ONE exception to our vegetarianism on this trip given our knowledge of how fish and chips is such a big deal here, and we do not regret it. The place was tiny and super cute (the decor was reminiscent of Doug's in Skaneateles, even - before the expansion, though!), and the portions were HUGE.

And so now we're back in the hotel, full and happy, and ready for another day of exploring tomorrow!

Across the North Sea!

This post will be extra long because it has to cover both yesterday and today! We took over 300 photos between the two of us in the last two days, so get ready for picture overload.

Yesterday we woke up in Edinburgh, and walked around to get coffee and do a bit of shopping. I (Morgan) bought an embarrassing amount of yarn, but in my defense it was all yarn from Scotland that I really couldn't get back in the States!

We then walked all the way up the hill to Castle Edinburgh, which from the street below is really quite impressive...

...and then when we got to the top and saw the crowds and the line we said screw it and wandered around the city a bit. Here's an outside view of our hotel in Edinburgh (the light building on the corner), the Grassmarket Hotel, which was one of our most favorite hotels yet!

We had to be in the car by 11:30 to get to Aberdeen in time for the ferry, so we reluctantly left Edinburgh (proclaiming that we will be back!) and headed north. The ferry was actually really cool, especially as we were leaving the port at Aberdeen and the sun was shining.

The ferry ride was pretty long, but we really needed something to force us to sit still for a bit. We went to bed really early. And before we knew it, it was time to get up and move the car off of the ferry, as we had arrived in Lerwick, Shetland!

Shetland is like a completely different world. It is a jumble of hills and mountains and cliffs and farmland and beaches and ocean and overall just the most amazing scenery. We spent all day today pretty much just driving around, stopping anywhere that looked interesting and taking detours whenever there was a sign indicating an historical site. 

In the morning we drove down from Lerwick all the way to the southernmost tip of the island (and by all the way, we mean 30 minutes. It's not a big island) and saw the Jarlshof historical site. Jarlshof is a site of historical buildings dating all the way from approximately 2,000 BC to the 17th century. New buildings were built on top of old buildings, and when they excavated they left buildings from multiple eras so walking around the site is like literally walking through time. It is amazing.

Tyler taking over now! From here we tried to do a few things, but it turns out that everything is closed or opens late on a Sunday in Shetland. We were able to get into the Lerwick museum - which is funded by the government of Norway, actually. We tried to go to Scalloway castle, but found that it was not open today - so some of the day we just took to driving across the country side admiring the scenery - which is very difficult to capture in a photograph:

There are too many pictures to sort through right now. But, you get the idea. From here it started to rain a bit - or rather everything was covered in a cloud. We did find ourselves going to another Broch: Clickimin Broch. This is that broch: 

Brochs were especially large buildings of their type, and had two outer walls in order to support the height. They are only found here and north west Scotland.

From there Morgans feet got wet, so we eventually ended up checking into our hotel to find they had over booked! So we were upgraded to a suite. It's huge, bigger than our apartment, with a bedroom, living room, and full kitchen. 

So, more to come as usual - tomorrow we're making another swing at Scalloway castle and maybe heading south to see some puffins - then to Orkney. We also need to buy some better shoes and warmer jackets - and a bag to carry all of our new purchases in!