driver view Viking narrated bus ride from Kirkwall to Ring of Brodgar on Orkney on 5/18/23 (2 of 2)
Channel: John Edwards
Date: 2023-07-06

This is part 2 of 2 showing a Viking Cruises narrated tour bus ride from the pier in Kirkwall, the capital of the Orkney Islands of Scotland, U.K. through Kirkwall through the countryside of Orkney's main island, Orkney Main, all the way to Ring of Brodgar near the village of Stenness on 5/18/23. The video ends with a view of the standing stones of the Ring. Most of the time the bus is on the A964. For those of you who haven't cruised with Viking before, tour guides are usually in my view a bit better.  What especially surprised me was how when we got to the famous Ring of Brodgar, the tour guide did not even bother to get out of the bus. This was the first time I can ever recall a Viking tour guide not leading the passengers to the very thing we made the trip to see--it really boggled my mind that she simply sat on the bus and left us on our own.  In fairness, due to 3 cruise ships being in Kirkwall on the same day, maybe we were fortunate to get any tour guide at all. I say that because Viking ran a deeply pared schedule of excursions, omitting all the optional ones and only doing the basic included tour.  Usually, based on a number of prior cruises, the basic Viking tour is usually good or even sensational but not in this case obviously. It also saddened me that Viking has never included St. Magnus in any of its tours. And, it's not a religious thing--it's an architectural thing because I think St. Magnus is a marvel in design and construction and would interest a lot of people.