745a Orkney Living; Walkable Cities; Nomads of Europe

Travel with Rick Steves

This episode of Travel with Rick Steves explores three distinct cultural landscapes: the rugged, Norse-influenced Orkney Islands; the evolution of pedestrian-friendly

Key takeaways

• The Orkney Islands possess a strong Norse bloodline due to a 1468 marriage dowry between Denmark and Scotland.
• Urban planner Jeff Speck argues that for cities to be walkable, they must be useful, safe, comfortable, and interesting.

Main topics

• Orkney Islands history and culture
• Pedestrian-friendly urban planning

Notable quotes

The right to bring a motor car to any address in a city is the right to destroy a city.

Conclusion

The episode highlights the profound connection between human movement—

Transcript preview

Speaker 3 (0:00) What's not to like about a lightly populated group of rugged islands off the northern tip of Scotland? Well, just be prepared for the weather to get your attention. Speaker 5 (0:09) If you like wild weather and biblical type of rain and storms, then Orkney is the place for you. Speaker 3 (0:16) Kinlay Francis tells us what he loves about living in Orkney. Urban planner Jeff Speck suggests that designing a city should be a lot like designing a home. It's meant to be for people. Speaker 2 (0:27) We like to make our streets as outdoor living rooms. What does that mean? It means they have good edges. It means they really hold you comfortably. Coming up, Speaker 3 (0:34) he explains how some cities are becoming better places to walk by making motorists share space with everybody else. Or just keep on walking. Historian Anthony Satin reminds us how nomads have shaped our world for centuries. The Speaker 4 (0:49) one constant is that they keep on doing what they've always done, and that is moving around. Speaker 3 (0:53) Come along for the hour ahead. It's travel. with Rick Steves. What kind of world do you want to live in? In just a bit, a city planner tells us what he's been learning from cities in Europe that can help make American cities more enjoyable places to walk around and explore. We'll also look at how nomads from long ago shaped the world we live in today and the challenges that nomadic communities are still tackling. Let's start the hour in a part of Scotland that lies beyond the usual tourist routes. A few years ago, I was heading to Edinburgh for perhaps the 20th time to update the Edinburgh chapter in my Scotland guidebook. And for some reason, I decided, rather than spend three more days in a city I already knew and loved, why not go to someplace entirely new, a place where very few Americans venture at the very north end of Scotland? So instead of Edinburgh, I ventured to Orkney. And I was so glad I did. My guide was Kinlay Francis, and he runs a company called Orkney Uncovered. Kinlay joins us to share his expertise on his homeland, Orkney. Kinlay, thanks for being with us. Speaker 5 (2:01) Yeah, thank you very much, Rick. It's great being online with you. Thank you for asking me to join you. Speaker 3 (2:06) First of all, there's a little confusion about the name. Is it the Orkneys, Orkney Islands, or what? Speaker 5 (2:11) Yeah, there's several ways of saying it. A lot of people think it's the Orkneys. That's a no-no here in the far north. The Orkney Islands is fine, but it's just known as the 70 islands as a group. It's just known as Orkney. Speaker 3 (2:24) Orkney. So we'd say, I'm going to Orkney. And the people there, not really Scottish. What is the mix of the ethnicity there in Orkney? Speaker 5 (2:33) Yeah, so we were once part of Scandinavia. In 1468, we were given up as part of a marriage dowry between King Krishna I of Denmark and James III of Scotland. Speaker 3 (2:44) Wait a minute. 500 years ago, Norway gave you away as a wedding present? Speaker 5 (2:48) Yeah, it's very unfortunate for us because we did not actually want to be part of Scotland. We wanted to stay with Norway. So we've got a very strong Viking and Norse bloodline. We speak English, Norwegian and Danish up here, no Gaelic. Speaker 3 (3:02) It's a fascinating thing because you're just a little stone's throw away from Scotland and the mainland of Britain, but you really have those strong Norwegian roots in Orkney. There's a lot of islands. I think there's like 70 islands and 25,000 people, but one island really dominates, right? Speaker 5 (3:18) Yes, that's right. So the main island is called Mainland, just to confuse the matter. Wait a Speaker 3 (3:24) minute, the main island is called Mainland? Speaker 5 (3:27) Correct, yeah. So when we, here in Orkney, we talk about how we're going on holiday, some of the islanders off the main island say we're going to Mainland for the day. So it's not Mainland Scotland, it's Mainland Orkney, just known as Mainland. Speaker 3 (3:39) Well, that's great. And then the main city in Orkney, tell us about the major city, because it must dominate Orkney. Speaker 5 (3:45) Yes, it's called Kirkwall, and it means Church on the Bay in Old Norse. It's actually pronounced Korkivara in Old Norse. And it actually relates to an old church from the 11th century, but we also have dominating the skyline, St. Magnus Cathedral, the most northerly cathedral in the United Kingdom, and was built by the Norse in the 12th century. Speaker 3 (4:07) And you were part of the parish of Trondheim in Norway at that time, 800 years ago. Speaker 5 (4:11) Yes, that's correct. Yes, we were. We were a very powerful place. We still are today. We have a very good economy. But Kirkwall is a very well-looked-after city. It has about 8,000 people. The economy and employment is very high. Speaker 3 (4:25) Kinley, how long has your family been Orcadian? Speaker 5 (4:28) My family have been in the Orkney Islands since 1990. And to be classed as an Orcadian, you need to be born in Orkney. My son, Benjamin, was born in Orkney. Speaker 3 (4:40) Okay. So if you're raising a kid in Orkney, I'm just curious, what would his favorite sports be? What does he enjoy from a sports point of view? Speaker 5 (4:47) Okay, so this might surprise some people, but one of the big sports here in Orkney is martial arts. And my son Benjamin is big into kickboxing. Speaker 2 (4:55) He Speaker 5 (4:56) also loves outdoor adventure, climbing and hill walking. I've tried to get him into the sea, but he's not having any of it. It's too cold for swimming. But anything outdoors, adventure, athletics, different sports, and mainly kickboxing. Speaker 3 (5:11) Kinley, speaking more about your beautiful son, Benjamin, what's your biggest concern as a parent of an eight-year-old boy growing up in the big town of Orkney? Speaker 5 (5:20) I think that the biggest concern for me is the fact that it's such an innocent place, Orkney. There's no crime. It's very easy for children to go out and play, you know, just by themselves in the parks and so on. There is no real concern at all for children, maybe when they go down to the city. And for Benjamin, it's the fact there's no McDonald's and no Burger King and no KFC. Speaker 3 (5:43) What is the big city for you? Is it Edinburgh or Inverness? Speaker 5 (5:47) Yeah, biggest city closest to us is Aberdeen, and Inverness is close by as well. They're both within about 150 miles south of Orkney. The biggest city we go to, though, is Edinburgh normally. Speaker 3 (5:58) This is Travel with Rick Steves. We're joined by Orkney native Kinlay Francis. He has a particular passion for the geology and history of this group of remote islands, and he shares his passion on tours for his company, Orkney Uncovered. Kinley's website is orkneyuncovered.co.uk. In Orkney, it's mostly one-lane roads with turnouts, right? So if there's a car approaching, you just leap for the nearest turnout where there's a little fat part in the road where it's two lanes for about 100 yards, and then you carry on. Speaker 5 (6:30) Yeah, that's very true. The turnouts are quite funny, actually, because many people don't understand what a turnout is or a lay-by or a passing place, as we call them. And there's an unwritten rule in the Orkney and Shetland Islands as well, actually, that the bigger vehicle wins the race. So I always end up being face-to-face with a tractor. So I'm always in the turnout. Speaker 3 (6:50) I'm curious about the political issues because... You're in a community of 25,000 people in Orkney. We've got Britain, we've got Scotland, we've got Brexit, you know, we've got North Sea oil and gas. What are the big issues? What's your orientation? Are you more friendly with Edinburgh or more friendly with London? Speaker 5 (7:09) Yeah, I mean, personally for myself, I like to be part of Great Britain. The Orkney and Shetland Islands, particularly Orkney, is a royalist county. And it dates all the way back to the 17th century when Oliver Cromwell failed to take us over as part of a military campaign because we were royalists. But we are very much geared towards the United Kingdom and the government. OK, so you'll Speaker 3 (7:32) stand by London. You don't want any of this separation business then? Speaker 5 (7:37) No, personally, I don't. I mean, there are people in every county within Scotland that want separation. Because Speaker 3 (7:42) if Scotland succeeded in pulling away from England, you'd have to go with them politically. Speaker 5 (7:48) Well, there is that question. Now, here in Orkney and Shetland, there's already the agreement, perhaps in the pipeline, that if this ever happens, then Norway will bring us back. So we can't go back to Scandinavia. And Speaker 3 (8:00) would that be a referendum of the people of Orkney that could decide that? Speaker 5 (8:04) Yeah, I think it's already in the pipeline with the Orkney Islands Council, the people who run the local governments up here. But yes, I think if that was to happen, an overwhelming majority vote would go back to Norway. Fascinating. Speaker 3 (8:16) Thank you for that insight. Now, when I landed in Orkney, I was just impressed by how treeless the island was. It was windy, gentle fields, rolling hills, and pretty bald. You know, cows, no stoplights. Beaches were like pneumonia zones. I mean, there were beautiful beaches, but if you went down there, you just would start shivering in a sparse population. You know, when people grow a garden, they do it behind stone walls so it doesn't get blown apart. Fill those blanks in for us if you're exploring your island. What are you going to find? Speaker 5 (8:49) Yeah, well, one thing you need to explore on the island is you need to remember to wear layers. It's not about what you're wearing, it's how many layers you've got on. And we are blown to bits by the North Atlantic and the North Sea. A lot of people talk about how, you know, southern England, after a 40 mile an hour wind, has to be evacuated. If you add on 100 miles an hour, you've got the Orkney Islands and no one's blinking an eye. We're a very treeless island and that's because of the storm force weather we get from the North Atlantic from the prevailing west delay. So whenever you guys in the United States get a really bad storm on the east coast, we're watching the National Hurricane Service that you've got. And as soon as it leaves your shores, we've got an eye on that coming in towards us. But it's an incredible, wild, rugged location. And if you like... wild weather and biblical type of rain and storms, then Orkney is the place for you. Speaker 3 (9:40) Kenley Francis is our guest from his home base in Kirkwall on Orkney right now on Travel with Rick Steves. He provides private tours of the adventure trails and historical sites of Orkney at orkneyuncovered.co.uk. By the way, since we first recorded our conversation with Kenley... the Orkney Island Council has concluded that it would be just too difficult and expensive for Orkney to seek political autonomy from the UK. Kidley, of course, this is a travel show and Orkney has its sights. Boy, there's a lot to see and it's fascinating because much of it is World War I and World War II history and much of it is megalithic, from the Stone Age, like stonehenge, that kind of thing. Give us a quick review of, first of all, the 20th century military importance of Orkney. Speaker 5 (10:28) First and foremost, our most social history, our history at the moment, which most people in Orkney relate to, is the First World War and the Second World War. Within the Orkney Islands, you've got one of the world's largest natural harbours. It's called Scapa Flow. It was named by the Vikings. It means sword water. And it's an area where the British Grand Fleet was in the First World War and the Home Fleet in the Second World War. So it was a main anchorage for our battleships. And so there was tens of thousands of personnel based here during the First and Second World War. Speaker 3 (10:58) Strategic importance. There were some battles in the bay. Churchill came along and made his barriers to help fortify it. And then one thing I learned from you, Ken Lay, on my visit, there were more people on Orkney 5,000 years ago than there are today. And it was a very important community in the megalithic times. And you've got some quite impressive structures that go back older than the Egyptian pyramids. Speaker 5 (11:23) Yes, Rick, that's correct. We have some very old structures and the population was almost double that it was today. So you're probably looking at about maybe 40,000, 45,000 people that would have inhabited most of the islands of the 70s. Today, there's only 21 inhabited. The types of ancient structures that we have, we have some huge stone circles, the Standing Stones of Stennis and the Ring of Brodgar. These are called henge monuments, like Stonehenge, but they predate Stonehenge by at least a thousand years. We also have Skara Brae, which is an incredible Neolithic village, one of the best preserved villages in northwest Europe. It's incredible. Speaker 3 (11:59) I'll never forget walking with you, and you're 6'7", and I'm 6'2", and we both bent down low, as people have for 5,000 years, to climb through this passageway and come into this domed, corbelled room, which was a tomb so many millennia ago, and it just overwhelmed me with wonder. Kinley, there's so much to see and do on your fascinating corner of the British Isles. Where would you take me to dinner, period, if you wanted to just really show off Orkney? Speaker 5 (12:27) Well, I think probably my favorite place to go for