Jarlshof

If you dock in Lerwick for only 1/2 a day you have two choices –

1 – stay in town where you can go to the Museum (free and terrific) and then wander through shops
2 – take a tour out to Jarlshof.

The distances involved are such that doing both really aren’t possible, at least if you tour doesn’t leave till right about the time that the shops open.

Deciding to use my brain (I don’t need more yarn, patterns or fridge magnets) I did a last minute dash and slide to join our tour group right before it departed the harbor. The drive through the countryside was lovely. Mostly rolling hills covered with grass and underlaid by peat. You can’t live anywhere on this island more than ~ 3 miles from the coast so orientation toward the North Sea vs the Atlantic is relatively important. Economic wise – there is fishing, North Sea Oil, Tourism and land based agriculture (think sheep and whisky).

Jarlshof itself is fascinating. The site was covered for centuries before a huge storm moved sand to expose what appeared to be a pre-historic site. Unusual for such locations, the remains of the iron/bronze age ruins, the Viking Long houses and the more modern (medieval is modern?) were not layered on each other but were built out and around each other.

Like you would expect, I still don’t have photos. Well I do, but no way to upload which I will start doing when I arrive home on the 16th.  We were back on the ship which sailed about 1330 heading toward Norway.

(and yes, Cat is correct, Kirkwall is the town, Orkney is the island upon which it is located)

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About Holly

fiber person - knitter, spinner, weaver who spent 33 years being a military officer to fund the above. And home. And family. Sewing and quilting projects are also in the stash. After living again in Heidelberg after retiring (finally) from the U.S. Army May 2011, we moved to the US ~ Dec 2015. Something about being over 65 and access to health care. It also might have had to do with finding a buyer for our house. Allegedly this will provide me a home base in the same country as our four adult children, all of whom I adore, so that I can drive them totally insane. Considerations of time to knit down the stash…(right, and if you believe that…) and spin and .... There is now actually enough time to do a bit of consulting, editing. Even more amazing - we have only one household again. As long as everyone understands that I still, 40 years into our marriage, don't do kitchens or bathrooms. For that matter, not being a golden retriever, I don't do slippers or newspapers either. I don’t miss either the military or full-time clinical practice. Limiting my public health/travel med/consulting and lecturing to “when I feel like it” has let me happily spend my pension cruising, stash enhancing (oops), arguing with the DH about where we are going to travel next and book buying. Life is good!
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