Men of Worth Tour Day 6

We returned to Orkney and were again set on a tour of the historical sites. Our tour guide today was Marita. She is an expatriate from Germany who came originally as a student and visited several times before moving to Orkney. She is a professional storyteller and tour guide.
We visited the Italian Chapel. It was built during World War 2 by Italian prisoners of war. They built a great deal of it from scraps of metal and wood. It is heavily decorated inside. The walls are hand painted to look like bricks and are very well done. There is a statue of St. George slaying the dragon outside the chapel that was also built by the POWs.
We went into Orkney's other city, Stromness, for lunch. We ate at a second floor restaurant in a hotel and looked out at the harbor. After lunch we saw three different sites. First was the Cliffs of Yesnaby. (http://tinyurl.com/2e8mt7g) The cliffs look straight out into the Atlantic Ocean. Marita said that when the weather is bad, the ocean can come all the way over the top of the cliffs.

Next we saw the Brough of Birsay (Brough is pronounced Brock with a heavy dose of phlegm). This is a Viking settlement that was built on top of an older Pictish settlement. It is all the way across the tidal bridge and you can get cut off if the tide comes in fast, so we didn't go over to look at it.

Finally we stopped at the Brough of Gurness. (http://tinyurl.com/2e52tfv) This is one of the largest Viking ruins on Orkney. We were able to walk around in it and see what it looked like so many thousand years ago. It was very impressive.

We were tired after two days of extensive touring on Orkney. The ride back seemed long, but we had music, whiskey, and good company to take us on our way. Guest Fiddler Gordon Gunn joined the Men of Worth that night and the music was great. Here is video of Gordon in action. (http://tinyurl.com/2cseo3f)