Took the 9:40 Flybe prop plane (small Saab puddle jumper) from Edinburgh to Kirkwall on the "Mainland" of the Orkney Islands. We were ready to leave the busy urban setting of Edinburgh and trade it in for the small town and rural setting of the Orkneys.
Rented the Renault Laguna automatic - neat car. No keys. It comes with a card you insert in a slot on the dash and then push a `start` button. Turn it off by pushing the start button again and removing the card. Way cool.
Driving on the L side was a challenge at first and, when we got to our hotel, a horror - a near accident, actually. Pulling out of the hotel drive to turn right (into the far lane for left sided driving) was scary due to a wall to our right that blocked the view of oncoming traffic from the left in the left lane (at 40 mph). To go to town and live we would simply do a left turn (angling the car so the side mirror could see oncoming trafffic from the right) and then go around the block. Took us a half hour to figure out which road would actually get us around the block as opposed to being a dead end. Eventually, we hit on a system where we would just pull into a parking lot half a block down the road and turn around. Highway driving at 60 mph on very narrow lanes and no shoulders - scary for Meggy in the passenger seat as we would nearly brush hedges parked car mirrors, etc. But, fortunately for all concerned I caught on.
We checked into the great suite at the Lindfield Hotel and arranged for high class dinner (world famous) for the evening and then we drove into town,.
We did a quick walking tour of the shopping district with lots of other tourists (its a bank holiday weekend) and had a great lunch at a combination restaurant bar and music school called the Reel.
Toured the absolutely magnificent St. Magnus Cathedral, started in the 10 hundreds and finished about 1450. Huge. Red stone. Medieval. Awesome. Words can barely describe it. Had a great visit with Robert and Margaret (also celebrating their 25th) at the St. Magnus Visitor`s Centre. Then toured the Earl`s Palace and the Bishop`s palace (both ruins now) - very interesting.
Had a good dinner at the hotel that evening.
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