Stop #6 Invergordon, Scotland

 Day 9 Sept 24, Wednesday

I have to write down what day it is because I've lost all track of time! Well, I'm bummed-out because somehow I caught a cold!! I do not feel well- headache, no appetite (which is a bummer on a cruise!) and a stuffed and runny nose. LaVerl isn't feeling the best either-his shoulder hurts him and his neck. He gets super tired really easy and can't be on his feet very long. We are finding out that 'cruising' is exhausting! Thankfully, today we had a later excursion so we got to sleep later, which helped. Our tour today was "Inverness on your own". We caught our coach at 10:45 and had a 45 minute ride into Inverness. There, they just dropped us off and we walked around the beautiful city. LaVerl bought a Scotland t-shirt and I bought a pretty blue sweater. We had to find a McDonald's for a toilet break and who do we run into but Tammie! They had come on an earlier tour-what are the chances? They were heading back to the ship at 2:30 and our tour ended at 5:15, but we had walked around all we could, so luckily, we could get on a bus and head back earlier.  We got to our room and crashed for a couple of hours. I met up with Tammie and Cliff for dinner-we skipped the fancy meal in Symphony Dining.  We got in late to the 7:30 show, so we were way in the back and couldn't really see, but it was amazing- MAGIKA- The Night of Wonders.

Leaving Invergordon. 

Stop #5. Kirkwall, Scotland

Day 8 Sept. 23, Tuesday

We didn't even get up until after 10am this morning- with good reason. I wasn't feeling well, I think I'm getting a cold-sore throat, headache, etc. Then my phone was going off until after 1:30 am because of the time difference at home. Sonja let me know that my Mom was in the ER in Show Low. She had gone to exercise class with Sonja, then afterwards she was short of breath and it scared her. The EMT's thought it might be her heart, so they took her to Show Low instead of Springerville. They found out it wasn't her heart, but another UTI!! I was worried about her, hence, not sleeping and then I texted my kids and they kept texting me all night. To top that, my renters coming into my Airbnb didn't get the door code for some reason, so they were texting, along with Airbnb texting and calling. It was a rough night.

We didn't go out on our tour until 1:30, so that was nice. Today we did the "Orkney Island Drive". It was a 3 hour bus tour with a guide telling us about all the things to see. I picked one that didn't require LaVerl to do a lot of walking.  The cost was $155 each.

The first stop on our tour was an old Italian Church. It was built by Italian prisoners, beautiful inside, all hand painted!

We saw lots of cows, sheep, green fields, rock fences, stone houses, and no trees. The hard winds keep them from growing on this island.

This mound was some type of ceremonial cave.

Winston Churchill had these huge rock barriers built across the waterways to prevent enemy submarines coming into the bay.

The last stop on our tour was the Stones of Stenness. They are very old and out of 11 of the original stones, only 4 survive today. In 1814 there was a local outcry when the farmer leasing the land started to pull the stones down-annoyed at having to plow around them.

This was the Ring of Brodgar that we didn't stop at. They were 400 years newer than the ones we saw.

Walk among the enigmatic stones of one of the most spectacular prehistoric monuments in the British Isles. The Ring of Brodgar Stone Circle and Henge is an enormous ceremonial site dating back to the 3rd millennium BC.

The Ring of Brodgar comprises:

• A massive stone circle, originally consisting of 60 stones – 36 survive today
• At least 13 prehistoric burial mounds
• A large rock-cut ditch surrounding the stone circle 

Then is was back to the ship. LaVerl headed to bed and I went to get a bite to eat. Tonights entertainment is "A celebration of Whitney Houston by Marcia Lynnette".