July 9, 2022 – Kirkwall, Orkney Islands

This morning we are at Kirkwall in the Orkney Islands. My group had the morning off followed by a scheduled tour after lunch.
The weather forecast was overcast sky’s and possible showers. I decided to stay onboard until the tour at 2pm. My return flights are on SAS which has been canceling 70% of their flights due to a pilots strike. Part of my morning was spent verifying that as of now my flights are still scheduled to fly.
Our tour took us through the countryside to a church which was decorated during WWII by Italian prisoners of war. The walls were painted to look like tiles. SPAM cans were transformed into lamps. The whole interior is a faux piece of art.
We returned to Kirkwall and visited the park which houses the Bishop’s and Earl’s palaces built in the 1200’s . Across the street is the Cathedral. We had to wait to enter the Cathedral until a wedding party departed.
I had invited five friends to join me for a birthday dinner at the Hot Rock Restaurant. We ended up just 3 of us having dinner together due to Covid. It was still a great dinner.
A local folk music duo came on board and we had an evening concert.
I wont have a blog entry for July 10 because it is a sea day.

On the 10th we were told that there are more covid cases. My dining group is down to two of us.