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I’m sitting on the train between Petersborough and Cambridge. The day started pretty nicely in Orkney, with some sun and a little bit of breeze, but now the damp air is thick and grey outside the windows, barely revealing the incredibly flat and green landscape of East Anglia. My mood can’t be bulged, though. It’sContinue reading “Day 6: Report from a train”

It is a beautiful place, Orkney. Despite the rain – or rather, because of it.

Kirkwall, the capital of Orkney, was an odd place. We lived there, in a hotel with wonderful rooms and the most amazing breakfast, but with a facade and a floorplan that didn’t all feel like a hotel’s. And that was kind of the feeling I got of Kirkwall as well. All the grey houses andContinue reading “Day 2-5: Kirkwall”

Great Britain had a big navy base at the Orkney islands during the second world war. At one point, this base got seriously attacked by the Germans, leading to the loss of a big war ship and hundreds of men. After that, Churchill wanted to make sure that the Germans wouldn’t be able to getContinue reading “Day 5: South along Churchill’s Barriers”

When I was little, I used to travel with my dad a lot. He was the editor of the travel pages in a big newspaper, and took me with him on his trips now and again. I’ve been all over, helping him find a good story: sailing past white coral beaches on Zanzibar, crawling throughContinue reading “Day 5: Another side of my parents”

The real reason for our Scotland trip was that dad was going to do research for an article on wave and tidal energy. On Orkney, the European Marine Energy Centre has been established, and they’ve opened wave and tidal energy parks where different companies can test their technologies. This fall, the first Swedish wave powerContinue reading “Day 3-5: On the job”

A Peedie Orkney Cream Tea. Not really like a proper high tea, but still. Mr. P approves.  

The one tourist attraction that Kirkwall has, is the old Norse cathedral. Its construction was begun in 1137 by the Norse settlers on Orkney, but it took about three hundred years to finish. It’s an impressive sight, though, completely dominating central Kirkwall. Everything being red, I don’t know, it created a feeling of warmth. I’veContinue reading “Day 4: Saint Magnus Cathedral”

Today, while driving up and down the green hills of Orkney, I asked dad to put on some music. He scrolled through the music library in my phone, and asked why I only had one song on it from Mumford & Sons’ latest album. I had no idea, and he put on something else. ButContinue reading “Day 4: The lost music”

On the westernmost tip of Orkney lies the Brough of Birsay. It is a tidal island, cyclically connected to the Mainland by a sandy tongue of land during four hours at low tide. This means that it is a Orkney sight only accessible during about eight of every twenty-four hours. When we were there, lowtideContinue reading “Day 3: Brough of Birsay”