Welcome to the A to Z challenge, a blog post everyday of April apart from Sundays, covering every letter of the alphabet. My theme is travel, that thing that we haven’t been able to do over the last 12 months, so it seemed appropriate to reminisce about past travels we’ve taken, looking forward to when we can travel freely again.

Today we’re visiting a group of islands with very strong links to the Vikings, and a resort that is perfect for romance.

The Orkney Islands are just 10 miles to the north of Scotland and consist of 70 islands but only 20 of them are inhabited. We boarded the ferry at Scrabster for the 90 minute journey to Stromness on the Mainland which is the largest island in the archipelago.

The bed and breakfast we stayed at was on a farm overlooking Stromness and when we arrived we discovered that our hostess was a fellow antipodean, but from New Zealand – just like me she had married a Scotsman and ended up at the top of the world.

The first thing that is very noticeable about Orkney is that there are very few trees because the islands are very windswept, and the few trees that have survived are leaning to the side. There are quite a few Neolithic sites to see, including standing stones and chambered cairns. The two we most wanted to see were Maeshowe and Skara Brae pictured below.

Maeshow is a chambered cairn that is over 5000 years old which is older than the pyramids. To get into the tomb you have to go through a passageway that is very low, this website says that the passage is 70cm tall, which I believe as I felt a bit like a pretzel trying to get into it – my beloved walked behind me holding my hips so that I didn’t collapse in a heap or get stuck. I also couldn’t take too long as you can only go in as a guided group so I didn’t want to hold anyone up. Once you’re inside you can stand up and the guide talks you through the history of the mysterious chamber. My favourite thing about the inside is that the Vikings had broken into the chamber during the 1100’s and had carved graffiti on the walls. It’s written in runes, and my absolute favourite was; “Tholfir Kolbeinsson carved these runes high up”, which really made me smile.

Skara Brae is a Neolithic village dated to 3200 BC and was hidden by a sand dune until a huge storm in 1850 which revealed what had been hidden for a very, very long time. As you walk from the visitor centre to the ancient dwellings, the path is inlaid with stones leading you back through time which gives a real sense of how old this site is – examples of some of the dates are; Fall of Rome AD 476, Birth of Christ AD/BC, and Stonehenge 2100 BC.

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Lets get my staples of any holiday out of the way – scrummy cakes and gorgeous kitty cats we chatted to. There were lots of poppy themed things around due to the above display, just like the lovely looking cupcake below.

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Another must see if you visit Orkney is the Italian Chapel which is on the island of Lamb Holm, but connected to Mainland by a causeway. During the second world war Italian Prisoners were housed on Lamb Holm to help build barriers to protect the islands, and after they put a request in they were allowed to build themselves a chapel out of two nissen huts. Amongst the prisoners was an artist, Domenico Chiocchetti, who transformed the inside of the huts to look as beautiful as any chapel in his home country of Italy.

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Set within the stunning beauty of Queensland’s Lamington National Park is O’Reilly’s Rainforest Retreat, and it was perfect for celebrating our second wedding anniversary. The suite we stayed in was gorgeous with a four poster bed, lounge area, balcony, and spa bath with a huge picture window so as to enjoy the view whilst relaxing.

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There were lots of tropical birds which would often come and sit on our balcony for a chat. You could also put birdfeed in your hands and be covered with them, as demonstrated by my beloved, but just as in D for Dubrovnik, I don’t have a picture of the moment the bird on his head decided to use him as a toilet.

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There are loads of walking tracks through the rainforest and on one of our days we arranged a picnic and then headed to one of the lookouts to enjoy it. Here’s two wonderful views, my beloved showing his legs, and the land spread out before us.

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Thanks for stopping by and make sure you visit other bloggers who are crazy enough to be doing the challenge with me – Click Here to visit the master list of participants.

Stay safe and have a great day.

Previous A to Z posts:

2018 – O is for the One

2017 – O is for Orkney

2016 – O is for Obsession