Tag Archives: Second World War

The Italian Chapel,Orkney Islands

    The Italian Chapel

Who said Nissan huts were boring?

Nissan huts are almost ubiquitous on the Orkney Islands as a result of the Orkney’s place in war history.  One of the more unusual uses of Nissan Huts on the Orkney islands is The Italian Chapel.

Cement Blocks – Churchill Barriers

Located on Lamb Holm in the Orkney Islands, The Italian Chapel was built by Italian prisoners of war during WW2. The prisoners were moved from the heat of North Africa to the chilly Orkney Islands, primary to build the Churchill Barriers and are responsible for The Italian Chapel.

The Churchill Barriers were built to protect the Scapa Flow anchorage, following the sinking of HMS Royal Oak by a German U-Boat in late 1939. The Churchill Barriers link Orkney Mainland to South Ronaldsay via Burray , Lamb Holm and Glimps Holm. The Churchill Barriers link Orkney Mainland to South Ronaldsay via Burray, Lamb Holm and Glimps Holm. While the Churchill Barriers are interesting and might make the subject of a post in the future this post is about The Italian Chapel.

View of the Churchill Barriers from the air

View of the Churchill Barriers from the air Source: https://www.visitorkney.com/things/history/the-italian-chapel

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A second visit – Walking the Streets of Catania, Sicily

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Our first visit to Catania was to meet our daughter’s desire to  visit Mt Etna and had been to brief, so we decided on a second visit.  With it came more time to walk the streets.

Our previous visit, a couple of weeks earlier, had made it clear that observing the normal precautions of large cities meant Catania was a safe place to visit.  Sure Catania is a little chaotic and gritty but it has so much to offer the traveller.

Our first visit took us through Catania’s famous fish market and Piazza Duomo and a brief look at the baroque architecture, so this time we decided to venture further afield and fortunately the weather obliged.

Our hotel was a solid 15 minute walk from the bus station, a journey we took in the dark. The nearest we came to feeling unsafe was a reference to the “Ultras” graffitied  on a building. All of the buildings seem to have graffiti of some sort plastered on them, adding to the gritty feeling of the city.

This visit also gave us a chance to try some of the more typical food of the region that did not include horse! In our previous visit we had been looking for quick meals but with it just being the two of us, we had a little more time and were able to sample some amazing seafood pasta from the menu at Cantania Ruffiana. It offered enough choices that we wished we had time for a return visit.

As we sat down a couple of other tourists were surveying the menu. They were a little concerned about the prices, definitely higher than the norm and walked off. As so often is the case “you get what you pay for”. The cover charge, seemingly mandatory in even the cheapest Italian restaurant  included bread, bruschetta and desert, so at €12 for a plate of excellent seafood pasta and €5 for half a litre of house wine (see Travel Tip below) it was good value.

After weeks of Airbnb and boutique styled hotels we felt like we needed a change and  stayed in a well priced business hotel. Decent pillows, a proper double bed and satellite TV giving me a chance to watch a Third Round Replay of the FA Cup live, complete with German commentary! The trade-off was an average breakfast with ordinary coffee.

After our average breakfast and coffee, with our map of Catania and a little research we set out for a day walking the streets. Continue reading

Reflections of My Life

I was listening to the 1969 Marmalades’ hit Reflections of my Life on Spotify.

It’s a forgotten classic by a band from Glasgow, however as I listened to it this time around, it was with quite different ears to those of the 12 year old who bought it in 1970 as a 45. I don’t think it was just being forty plus years older that gave the song a different feel.

It is a very melancholy song. For me, as with so many others, a couple of lines stood out,

The world is a bad place, a bad place
A terrible place to live, oh but I don’t wanna die
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Given the song was written at the height of the Vietnam War its anti-war sentiment is easy to understand as is the reference to the world as a bad and terrible place. This time around though, it was not the Vietnam War that I was thinking about when I listened to the song, but a photo I had seen on our recent trip. I could neither get the photograph or the lines out of my head.

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The photo is on display at the Topography of Terror in Berlin,

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