Mainland Orkney

Today is hiking day. Since buses to the tourist attractions I want to visit do not run on Sundays and tours of the Maeshowe World Heritage burial mound are fully booked until June 24th, we'll scale it down a bit. But since people have been settling here for 5000 years, you just have to turn around twice and you'll find yourself in front of a Category B burial mound.

Or as the Orcadians - did anyone know that? - say: 'If you dig the spade into the ground, you will make an archaeological discovery.'

Poor prospective builders! In the very hilly archipelago, burial mounds were often built on an even larger hill, of course, because of the view.

A nice hike of one and a half hours should lead us there. The very strong wind wanted to prevent us. But we were stubborn and only got a little lost, a friendly Orcadian (!) showed us the way.

Speaking of the locals! Apparently, they don't have such masses of tourists here and they are all so friendly and informative. The friendly signpost let us go a little smarter after a short excursion into Viking names on the Orkneys, and the harbor master said that since our reserved spot in the marina was not available, he would not charge us for the berth at the pier. Or a short stop with a view of the closed pharmacy and the next open drugstore will be shown to you.

Hopefully the Orcadians will never come to Munich and want to take 3 stops on the subway there!

Unfortunately, our time on Mainland is almost over, because attention, a weather window will open tomorrow. Still waiting for the right current that will wash us out of the archipelago, that will be at noon, and then we will leave the North Sea and welcome the Atlantic.