A slightly bittersweet blog, because we have already left Orkney again and are back in our everyday lives but we’ve brought along soo many new happy memories, which make us smile! (And, we are working on a plan for another visit next year, despite us concluding last year, that we couldn’t go EVERY year.
We’re still sticking to that (especially when thinking about our bank account...) but maybe not for a few more years :o)

As we’ve had some requests (ok, only two) we thought we’d share our Orkney holiday memories with you - making them last a little longer and there is one funny story which might be worth sharing - so keep on reading!

So, let’s start at the beginning - we were so excited when we’d booked our Orkney flights and could hardly wait till April - but then we suddenly started to wonder “Will it be as nice as we remembered?”, “Will people still recognize us?”, “Will we still feel at home in Orkney?”
Of course, now we know, the answers are YES, YES and YES!

We arrived in Orkney on Thursday morning (after having left Switzerland on Wednesday afternoon - making use of the Swiss school system which lets us take the children out of school for one day only... and were greeted at Kirkwall Airport by our friends the Bremners! We went there for a cup of tea and to catch up - and then over to M&J’s house, which they had kindly agreed to swap with us again! Then we went to town for some shopping (no list, just buying all the things we remembered and missed) and on the way home we popped in to the local shop for a paper and a chat. We were greeted with “Oh, we had heard you were back home!” How nice was that! And that’s exactly what it felt like! It just felt “right” to be back!


Can't come to Deerness without going to the beach! We are all very happy there!

Then we did all the things we loved: Visiting the old stones, beaches, library and of course all the friends and neighbours we had missed so dearly!
The sun was shining (sometimes ) and suddenly we were already thinking about the things we wanted to do before we left! Half time was already over!


The watch stone


Our favourite ring!

One of our favourite walks is around Mull Head, having a picnic down in our favourite geo. So off we went! Maleah lay in the heather, which she loves and we saw some seals, built a wall and had a great time! At the end of the walk is the Brough of Deerness, another favourite place of ours. We met a tourist with binoculars, excitedly asking us if we’d seen the Orcas. No, we hadn’t! They must have swum past us at some point and we were very disappointed about having missed them. Just as he was walking away the tourist asked:
“Are you the family from that catalogue?”
“What??”
“Well that family which is in the Discover Orkney Brochure!”
“Oh, yes, we are!”
“Wow, you guys are famous!”

A warm up after a paddle in the sea - only one of these two actually touched the water :o)


Can you spot Maleah?


Mull Head: One of our all time favourites!

So we walked on, smiling! Still a little sad about missing the Orcas, but happy at being called famous. We walked back to the car, seeing that the tourist was following us. When we arrived at the car, he came up to us and asked if he could take a photo of us to prove to his daughter that we were real and not models!
That made our day!

Of course, we then stopped at the airport the next day to get the catalogues - and there we were! Five (!!) Of our “brilliant moment photos” were in the catalogue!
(I had won an Ortak necklace for my photo, so we had known they had liked them, but we thought they’d just be on the website... Visit Orkney: Brilliant Moments )

That was just one of our brilliant Orkney moments from this year. Others included:


(Maleah also had another riding lesson, and got to enjoy her very first canter!)


They also both really enjoyed the cart our neighbour had lent us!



Our favourite view: Copinsay lighthouse in the sunshine


Two favourites in one: Meeting the Bremners on the Brough of Birsay!


Three climbers on a rock next to the Brough of Deerness


Another one, of course, included the children going to the school, and loving it (again) and the headmaster telling us, our children would always have a place at that school! Which was lovely! I went to have lunch with the teachers, which was great too! And we had tea (normally with cakes, biscuits or a whole meal) with so many lovely people!

Which made leaving so much harder...

But we know we are incredibly happy and blessed to have found a second place we can call home - and we are looking forward to our next visit, whenever that may be!

View from the plane - tears in our eyes but happiness in our hearts!

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