As discussed in the last blog entry by Natalie, cycling can be an adventure with ups and downs. On Tuesday, however, I was on a cycling trip which had only ups! Except of course for the many downhill sections ... Natalie did one of her last school visits in Kirkwall and was able to take me and my bike into town in the car. That way I didn’t have to do the Deerness - Kirkwall route, which I’m not too fond of. I’ve done it so many times in the car that it’s a bit boring by now. The first stop after Kirkwall was Wideford Hill, as far as I know the highest road in Orkney with 225m above sea level. The views from the top were a bit hazy, but still absolutely fantastic. And it was hot! I had to push the bike for a substantial part of the ascent because it was just too steep and I didn’t want to empty my reserves on the first few kilometers with so many still to come. I then walked down to Wideford cairn, an impressive 5000 year old burial chamber about 100m (altitude) below the top of Wideford hill (see fotos on the left under ‘Our Orkney Photos’). I just realized that there is no English Wikipedia page for the cairn which shows how many incredible ancient buildings / sites there are in Orkney, if this one is not even exciting enough for a Wikipedia entry. Anywhere else in the world this would be lit up all day with signs all over and a access path that earned its name. The path I was on didn’t really meet the expectations, I had wet feet for the rest of the day. Back up the hill to where my bike was, I just clambered through the heather. It is so soft and deep on these mountain sides that it feels like walking trough fresh snow. Maybe snowshoes would have been a good idea.

Then it was on toward Finstown on the old road and then south to Kirbister Lake in Orphir between Keelylang Hill and Mid Hill on a great mostly empty road, all the while it was getting warmer and I had to pull back my sleeves. The road was really so nice to cycle on, going left and right through the most beautiful countryside. Cycling in Orkney is usually limited to cycling on the main roads because most others just lead to the next farm. The main roads are mostly very narrow. You could never pass a bike while another car is coming towards you. And all this with a speed limit of 60 MPH / 97 kph. A reason why you never see a biker without a reflective jacket, even when the sun is shining brighter than anything. It always leaves a bit of a bad feeling when you’re on the road and hear a car approaching from behind. Did he see me? Or am I going to wake up in the emergency room? So you see why I was so happy about the road with little traffic.

Then further on to Kirkwall along the coast and another one of the main roads but with wind in my back to my full astonishment. I stopped at Scapa Beach near Kirkwall to eat lunch and gather energy for my last stretch to Deerness. In the end it was 55k with 700m of ascent. What a great day out!

Yesterday the weather was even more beautiful, although that is hard to imagine. In Kirkwall they measured 12° C and there was no wind to speak of. I ate my lunch outside (unfortunately we all had to work). Now it’s going to be another couple of weeks (I hope not months) before we get weather like this again.

In other news, we still owe you the newspaper article about us that was in the Orcadian (unless your reading this in Orkney, then you’ve proably seen in on paper and now have it framed and hung up in your living room!). So here it is.

When we asked our house swappers about bikes they said they had them, but M said she’d stopped riding hers when one day she had to pedal to get down a hill!
“Well,” I thought, “I’m very fit and a good cyclist and a little pedalling when going down a hill has never harmed anyone!”
Well, those words came back to haunt me yesterday!
I did my “longer round” to the shop, going up to the top of the hill, along that road and down to the shop. I’ve done it many times, and it’s a good, easy - and mostly fun - exercise.
But yesterday the wind was so strong and riding my bike DOWN towards the shop I knew I had to either pedal as hard as I could just to keep moving or the wind would either blow me back up the hill, or throw me off my bike altogether! I was very close to getting off, throwing the bike into the ditch and walking home. Luckily I didn’t! Because on my way back from the shop I had the wind behind me, pushing me up the hill and all the way home!
Now, I am back in love with cycling! And the wind!

When we were planning our stay here, there were two I things I was really hoping we would see: Merry Dancers (aka Northern Lights and Aurora Borealis) and Whales. In the mean time I’ve added otters, as there are some about, but they seem really hard to “catch”...
But the main new is: Not only did we see “some lights” we saw the MOST PHANTASTIC DISPLAY! It was just unbelievable!
We had seen some a few days ago, lighting up the sky in green and we had been so happy to have seen them. We had known from the start chances were quite big that we just might not see any at all! Then we started speaking to Orcadians and found out that many had never seen any - or at least no really impressive ones...

So, we saw these wonderful lights on Monday. Matt had tried to take some photos, but the light was hardly visible on the screen.

Then, yesterday, Matt was at athletics and I saw that there might be some lights (thank you facebook!). So we looked out of our only (and very small) northern window but couldn’t see any. I sent the kids to have their bath and when they were finished there was a green glow. I could hardly believe our luck, seeing two in a row! So we got dressed and went outside. They were quite good and Nanouk insisted on taking some photos for his Dad to see when he got back. I tried to tell him that it was very difficult to capture, and that it was better to just watch them and “take a photo in your heart”. But he insisted on getting the camera out, putting it on the stand, changing all kinds of settings (I’d shown him once, a long time ago) and he took some photos. I was still trying to tell him, they would probably not look half as impressive on the big computer screen... We just stood out there for quite a while, gazing and being impressed. Then we went in and Nanouk insisted on checking if his photo had turned out well - and it had! We were all delighted and excited.




I got the children to bed, calming them with a lovely story, when we heard a maniac, driving up the road, beeping his horn nonstop!
The noise stopped right in front of our house. So we realised it was probably Matt, home from athletics, excited about the last rest of green in the sky. Of course the children insisted on going outside again, which we did - and there was much more green! It was really amazing. So we watched for another long while, then the children and me went back inside, me putting Nanouk’s photo online (proud Mummy :o) and the kids to bed, at last.
As Matt didn’t come back in I went out to see if he was alright, and he was all excited about all the red dancers that had appeared! He was so excited that it hadn’t occurred to him to come and get us!
So I rushed back in and got the children out again and we stood there for ages - marvelling at the wonderful world!
Matt took some amazing photos (see our links on your left), including an all red one with the big dipper in the middle, one right in the southern sky with Orion (my favourite stars) and some other amazing shots!

Most people I’ve spoken to have never seen such wonderful Northern Lights here in Orkney ever! S we are just feeling so happy to have experienced this!

In other news: I had my last day at St.Andrews school today, which makes me feel quite sad. It’s such a wonderful place and great people! I’m off to another school for the next two weeks (only three days...) and I’m writing a report for the institution who gave me the mini grant to come here. I’m also going back to St.Andrews to tell the teachers about what I’ve written and the differences and the similarities I’ve found, so I’m looking forward to going back already!
Also, I will be accompanying some classes on excursions, which I’m looking forward to!
This week I’ve also visited Nanouk and Maleah’s classes and in Maleah’s we were asked to give the class a small German lesson, which we did. (Read about it in Maleah’s class’ school blog here)


Nanouk’s class also has a blog, no photos of him there, but a portrait of the author who came to visit. She also did an evening session for parents and pupils, which we all really enjoyed!


It’s the holidays soon and after that our situation here will probably change quite a lot, as we will be having visitors quite often. We’ll see how that will be!!

I’ve bought tickets for Nanouk’s school musical which will be in two weeks and we’re looking forward to that!

Also, my application for the joint bank account seems to be processing, so I’m hoping to receive my own credit card soon (and not having to sign Matt’s name anymore - pssssssssst!)

We’ve also had an article about us in the Orcadian newspaper. Don’t know if we will get a digital copy (which we then, of course, would share with you here... But if you’re living in Orkney, it might be worth buying a copy - there’s a lovely photo of us in it :o)

We will keep you updated about all that’s happening - and if you don’t want to miss an update you can always sign up for our newsletter (top right).

We’ve just come back from one of our most wonderful weekends! And the glorious thing is - the weekend is only about to start!
The children have got half-term, and that means 3 days off school. The first day I went to school with the teachers, finding out more about how the school works and what makes it such a special place! And Matt had a great time with the children on a beach!
Then we were discussing, what we could do. One of the options was to fly “the triangle” (Kirkwall - Papa Westray (Papay) - Westray - Kirkwall) because we wanted to be on that shortest scheduled flight. Then I remembered a colleague at school telling me that Papay was her favourite island and we thought it would be a shame to just fly through it. Although the weather forecast wasn’t very promising we tried to find a place to sleep, which wasn’t very easy, either. But, in the end we managed to book ourselves into the village-owned and community run hostel and even found someone who offered to cook us a meal, as there is no restaurant on the island.
Then we booked the flight, and found out that only the very early flight was available, which we booked.
Thursday morning early, off we went, checked in 15 minutes before the flight left, checking in our rucksacks, drinking a cup of tea and reading the weekly newspaper!

Off we went! Maleah and I sat in the front, just behind the (lady) pilot, watching all her moves and enjoying the most beautiful sight! Had we realised that the last to get in would be the ones to sit at the front, we would probably have let “our men” sit there. But I must say I soo enjoyed it and was so happy to sit in the best seat!
We landed 15 minutes later and had planned to walk to the hostel, which was so close, but then a nice man (who had come to meet the plane to get the paper early) offered to drive us.
After arriving at the hostel and enjoying a cup of tea (which tasted very different with the peaty water), we waited for the rain to pass in the lovely sun room (which was also nice in the rain).
And off we went to the Knap of Howar. We had read about “one of the earliest standing North European dwellings known, dating back to around 3800 years BC”, but still we were not prepared for the sight! It was just like Skara Brae, but we were allowed to walk in, stand there, where 6000 years before us, people had stood and sit, where they had sat, eating their fish and grain! It was just the most amazing feeling!
After a while we walked on to St Boniface Kirk, which dates back to the 8th century, planning when and with whom we could come back to this magical place.
Then we headed back to the shop and then the hostel for some lunch, and to let the rain pass, before we headed back to the beach, this time on the other side of the 1-mile-across-slim island.
On the way there we found a “craft shop” which was full of the most amazing wool! Along with a wonderful lady, who had quit her job in Germany to come to this wonderful place to live her dream! How envious I am (but I know this wouldn’t be for me...)
Matt gave me the most generous Valentine’s gift of letting me buy tons of lovely yarns, even encouraging me, although it cost more than our stay! And now I can’t wait to get started!
But first we went to the beach, which was again absolutely beautiful!
We could have spent ages there, looking for beautiful stones and sea shells, watching the seals and the birds and the clouds - and our children, who were just so happy to be on the beach!
But we headed back to warm up a little, and to meet the lovely lady who had cooked our delicious dinner (lasagne and something with chickpeas, aubergine and couscous for me! And a huge apple crumble for desert! As soon as she brought it, I knew we could not eat it all - but then, it was so delicious, that we did! Even had some of the ice cream to go with it! Delicious!

Then we had an early night in our cosy room and woke up early the next morning, which was perfect, because we wanted to be at the airport to watch the early plane come in and fly on to Westray! The sun was out, the birds were singing and we enjoyed the walk, the plane watching and Matt filmed the mini flight of about a minute the plane took to fly to Westray (see “Our Youtube Channel” on your left).
Then we headed back to the beach, and were accompanied by seven seals who seemed to be watching us! Especially when Nanouk and Maleah decided to dance and sing for them, they all came nearer and watched!
It was the most beautiful sunny day!
We had to head for the hostel to have some lunch (beans on toast) and pack our bags, enjoy more sun in the sunroom and headed out for our afternoon flight.
We had a lovely mini-flight to Westray, which Nanouk timed to be 57 seconds, but it might have been 58 or 59, and then another 15 minutes back to Kirkwall.
We received our certificates that we had been on this flight and drove home happy but exhausted, knowing we would certainly want to go back!
(Some new photos on flickr -> “Our Orkney Photos” on your left)

Can’t believe it’s nearly Valentine’s Day! I’ve started planning my last two weeks at the school, and thinking about writing my article for the teachers’ magazine and my paper on my experience - but still trying to push that to the back of my mind for the moment!
We had a great start to the weekend with a visit to Evie, where we visited Rosie and Caroline, went to the beach and found this amazing bone. Maleah was fascinated - so now we’re hoping she won’t get into bone collecting ...


Also, they have a lot of trees and the most wonderful snowdrops all around the house, which is very unusual in Orkney. They’ve also got an amazing three legged cat!
We also went to the library again, and we just all really enjoy being there, browsing through books. I went again on Monday night for the “yap and yarn”, where there was a workshop on socks. You wouldn’t believe the socks one could make! I’m hoping to start mine, soon! (Well, after I’ve finished Maleah’s leg warmers and my self-designed-making-it-up-as-I-go-along handbag...)

This week is a really short one, today it’s the children’s last day of school already and tomorrow it’s teacher’s only, which I’m going to attend, as it’s all about emotional resilience, which is interesting for me. Well, actually, it’s all so interesting! There are some really obvious differences, like the uniforms, the walking in line and the smartly dressed teachers, but there are also many more subtle ones like the focus, which is more on the children and less on the contents of the teaching.

So on the one hand I’m really sad about my time at St. Andrews ending, on the other I’ll be happy to have some time (AFTER writing the report, I know...)

Not sure what we’ll be doing on the long weekend, we’re hoping to go and see one (or several) of the islands, but not sure if the weather will be good enough! Also, we’re going to see cats on Saturday. We’re very excited about that!
So, stay tuned (or subscribe to the email alert on the top right) to hear what we’ve been up to!