ORKNEYS

 We are in Kirkwall in the Orkney Islands just off the north coast of Scotland. Bit easier today as we are docked & no immigration to deal with. Small town with a sprinkling of shops, mostly touristy with hand knitted jumpers at £150 a pop. We wandered about town, took in a museum that revealed to us that this was an important place 5000 BC with developed buildings & settlements. Scara Brae is nearby. This was before Stonehenge was built.

This is a garden building of am important island dignatory - it is built from the recovered ballast from a pirate ship.

In wartime, both WW1 & WW2, this was the main home waters base of the Royal Navy with several hundred ships based here. After WW1, 52 ships of the German navy were brought here. As the Versailles treaty was being completely the Germans scuttled the whole fleet. Most of the ships were cut up for scrap and even today this is still going on and you can buy bits on eBay.

WE'RE ON & WE'RE OFF

 Nice limo to the ship, beemer M series, boarding went OK, no problems with the booze and fairly speedy. Nice spacious cabin in a peaceful part of town.

Arrived in Edinburgh under the Forth rail bridge, weather great despite the rainy forecast. However the Spooner travel agency had blips.

1. No Ubers to take us to the top of the Royal Mile (planned to avoid the steep slog up to the top of RM)

2. Backup plan to walk to the nearby ScotRail station approx 11 min walk backfired because halfway there we had to ascend 100 steep steps. Mrs S not best pleased. However train was great, £3.95 return. Not great for everyone, there was a couple of Yanks from the boat on the station confused about where to board for Edinburgh, I offered to help & noticed their ticket was for Inverkeithing - is that not Edinboro?

We had a lovely day, visited Museum of Scotland, then had a tour of an old house on the Royal Mile which was saved from demolition by the Scots NT. It is set out over 3 floors, the 3rd in 1911, the 2nd floor as in 1760 and the 1st in 1630.

Tomorrow Kirkwall.

UBER WARS

We're flying from Heathrow to Amsterdam, where we spend a couple of days before going to Rotterdam to pick up our Holland America cruise around the UK, then up to the Arctic circle. First step,p advance book the Uber to Heathrow - not bad, got a 3am pickup for £78. Come 4pm I got an email saying the credit card was out of date & I had until 1am to update it. I did so straight away. At 1:05am got an email saying cab cancelled. Rebooked perfectly well with the credit card that was on the app except now £88. Although the guidance is to arrive 3hr before departure for international flights, the bag drop didn't open until 2 hours before departure. Everything else great, check in, security, duty free (£13 litre of Tanqueray) and flight on time. Using the new EES at Schiphol not so good, didn't seem to recognise my fingerprints at all. I hear they abandoned using it next day because of the problems it was causing.

Picked up by cab at the airport & taken to the Arena hotel in East Amsterdam. It's an old 1800's building that used to be an orphanage, pretty apt as Lin & I are both orphans now. Nice place on the edge of a lovely park. Hotel restaurant & patio overlooked the park.

Went to plan, relaxing couple of days wandering around sitting in cafes watching the world. Dutch youth aren't too intelligent - watched a bunch of them on a park bench with fast food, drinks & drugs. Finished by leaving junk all over the floor. They couldn't work out that the metal thing next to the bench was a receptacle for putting rubbish in!

The morning sun really shows your age(name that tune)

These are at the King's palace in Dam Square.

I'm not on one, I must be off my ????

Really hot, one way of cooling off & getting rid of smells.

They have a lot of these micro cars here, drive 'em on cycle paths, pavements here. Just tie them up like horses when they arrive to stop them wandering off.

TULIPS FROM...?

 Amsterdam, of course! I've got a blue toothbrush, Lin's got a pink.... Anyone remember Max? We are off on a round Britain, Norway up to the Arctic circle cruise, that starts in Rotterdam. Packing for a month, Lin's got it down to one 15 kilo and one 16 kilo case. I'm thinking of renting out for a fee to pack for others - any takers.

Weather is is still baking here in London, around 30 Celsius. Looking forward to the Arctic even though it's 24 hour daylight. Last time up there it was mid December - 24 hour night.

Just been to a family do up in March, in the garden all day with a big bunch of 3 year olds, pretty exhausting. We are not going to recover - cab picks us up at 3am.

WIPERS

 Ypres or Ieper in local lingo. Linda's Grandad always called it Wipers when he served out here in WW1. The Tommies had there own names for many of the places out here, Pluegsteert became Plug Street.

Went to the Plug Street memorial, had lovely lions there and a memorial to the Anzac & Canadians. Its interesting that we must have looked at thousands of names on these memorials - not one Tankard or Bainbridge, good few Spooners tho'.

Went on to Sanctuary Wood that was the scene of a big battle and there is now a museum with original trenches. I couldn't get Lin to go into the unlit, wet tunnels, wonder why? Rats anyone. The museum had a collection of stereoscopic viewers with original gruesome photos. Faces blown off, dead everywhere.

Moved on to Hooge Crater for a really nice lunch, home made pate, cheese and lager followed by the museum and a visit to recreated British & German trenches. This was the battle where gas was used for the first time. The French colonial troops panicked & fled but a Canadian officer realised what it was and got the troops to piss on their handkerchiefs and breath though them - it worked.

Went to Vancouver Corner where the guy who came second in the Vimy Memorial competition designed this "brooding soldier" that is duplicated at a number of other sites.

Tyne Cot cemetery, one of the largest in the world. It has a number of German bunkers on the site which the authorities tried to blow up but failed. Instead that built a crucifix monument on top to hide it. 

Went into Ypres for dinner - stewed eels, mash & liquor, yum. Followed by the ceremony at the Menin Gate, where we watched the bands march, buglers play the last post and wreath laying. It was quite emotional.

Late to bed, up early 5:30 to catch the 11am ferry. Changed coach drivers, cocked up the paperwork, late through security & customs - missed the ferry. Told the next one was full, but luckily got on. Good crossing, excellent duty free 2 litres for £25. The coach has to go to Folkstone Services where all the passengers have to change to board their coaches to take them home. Because we were the last coach in, every other coach was waiting for us, fully loaded with fed up passengers. We rushed to our coach, found the last couple of seats, apologised to everyone & set off. 10 minutes later the driver gets a phone call - we had left someone behind. Back we go pick him up and set off again.

ARRAS

 Arras, another big battlefield with many casualties, not much ground gained and then all lost again later in the war. A common theme on the Western front. The Vimy Ridge memorial is very striking with different types of sculptures. Also interesting that it's next to the pyramids. Vimy was a great Canadian Army success in contrast to the rest of the campaign. Used all 4 Canadian Divisions.

We visited the Commonwealth Graves Commission site where they make all the headstones. They still make thousands a year for existing replacements and new ones, as they are always discovering remains as the excavate for new buildings and during farming. Everything is automated to a standard design, including the fence, gates, doors, digns & other parts.

Arras, itself is a very nice picturesque town, that's the town hall. Most of these towns were destroyed in WW1, so they have mainly been rebuilt in the original styles.

This is the Arras Memorial which contains the only memorial dedicated to the war in the air.

Mouscron town hall, the town where we were staying.