Up North ... history and archaeology

After returning the night before from England, on Tuesday (April 6) Harrison and I took the train (thanks to the averted train strike) north to Thurso at the very tip of mainland UK. Harrison was on school break and I took a week of vacation from work. We we welcomed into the home of the parents of one of the guys I work with near Thurso who fed us a great meal and gave us beds to sleep in for the night. The next day we crossed over to the main island of Orkney by ferry and took a guided tour of the island's spectacular neo-lithic stone-age sites including Maes Howe (a 6000 year-old tomb that was plundered by vikings in the 1200's who left several types of runes and grafitti ... including twig runes), Scara Brae (a 6000 year-old village that was preserved and buried until a storm in the 1800's uncovered some of it to human eyes once more), and two stone circles (Standing Stones of Stenness and the Ring of Brodgar). It was great!
Other highlights included hiking along the coast near Stromness, camping a couple of nights in Kirkwall, and having amazing suppers (such amazing meals we ate at the Kirkwall Hotel all 3 nights).
We departed by overnight ferry from Kirwall to Aberdeen (and with 50 other people literally camped on the lounge floor of the ferry in sleeping bags) ... very bohemian.
It was satisfying going somewhere so remote, camping, and seeing such amazing archaeological things ... point of note that Scara Brae is referenced by Professor Indiana Jones in the recent movie Kingdom of the Crystal Skull.