Black Beauties

It might be reasonable to conclude after our experience with visiting liners last week that His Lordship and I would be wary of visiting Kirkwall again on a Monday, but that does take into account our age related memory loss.
So it was that we jaunted into the Orcadian capital today to be met with hundreds of tourists streaming off the Cunard flag ship, the Queen Elizabeth. A motley collection they were too, as they filled the main street, forcing people to adopt rugby side swerves to progress forwards.

However they didn't know about that Kirkwall institution, Shearer's, a shop away from the madding crowd wherein one may find everything from the tastiest cheese through to the smallest screw and compost, passing door mats and barbecues en route. It was an oasis of peace and tranquility allowing the perusal of foodstuffs and everything else that one cannot generally find under one roof.

Outside, these handsome Clydesdale horses were in demand for rides around a block encompassing the Cathedral and the harbour.
What the one on the left is saying to his partner as I blipped, there was no way of telling, but I hope it was something along the lines of ' Gosh what a wee stoater she is, her in the red anorak pointing a camera at us'.