British Isles: Lerwick, Shetland and Jarlshof
We are finally here! Were were excited about visiting the Shetland Islands back when we did The Wake of the Vikings, but the weather made the water too tough to dock or tender in, and we had to skip the Shetland Islands. It was particularly disappointing to AdventureMan, as he had watched every episode of Shetland, a mystery series on Netflix.
As it turns out, he wasn’t alone – one of the first things the guide mentions is that everyone wants to see where the murders were committed (and through the trip, she showed us!) but that the show made The Shetlands look like the murder capitol of the world, when in truth, daily life tends to be very routine, and crime of any kind is limited. And everybody knows everybody.
Probably half of our bus had watched the show, or read Ann Cleeves addictive books about Shetland, and there was a lot of enthusiasm and appreciation from the people on the bus when the guide pointed out the places where the crimes really did not take place.
On our way this morning, this cracked me up. The local ferry, the North Link, with a big Viking on it passes the huge Viking ship as if we were barely moving, LOL. I guess it just struck me as funny. Maybe he’s pointing the way, thinking we are lost.
Today, it is cloudy, but they are high clouds, and foggy, the kind that burns off by late morning, and AdventureMan spots a seal sporting in the Viking Jupiter wake as we are docking.
I was wearing a skirt, but I change into Levi’s because it is chill, this is Juneau, Alaska, where I grew up kind of August. I wear a shirt under a sweater, and carry a windbreaker, which I later don when we hit Jarlshof, our destination today.
En route, we pass gorgeous bays, fields full of fat, happy sheep, contented cows and frisky Shetland ponies. We stop for a break in Hoswick where I find a gorgeous handmade coffee cup, and love the old crafts demonstrations set up there. It was still very early – barely 8:30, so they had gone to some trouble to be open when we passed through.
In this village I see something that blows my mind, an entire hedge which is a fuchsia shrub. Fuchsias are special to me; I used to buy one for my Mother for Mother’s Day. I have tried to keep hanging fuchsia’s almost everywhere we have lived, but they are very particular – don’t like heat at all, and need just the right amount of water. The guide tells me this is a hardy fuchsia, and they are grown all over the Shetlands because they love it there. What luxury!
We see a tall ship out in the adjoining bay. Our guide is smart, and a good story-teller. She tells us not much really grown in the Shetlands to support life; the trees are mostly gone, some grow potatoes and vegetables in family plots, but the main industry, until the oil fields came, has been fishing, particularly herring. There are herring stations near where our boat is docked, and she tells us there were women called the “gutting girls” who would flay and salt the herring and put them in barrels to ship around the world.
We learned the Shetlands have only been a part of Scotland for the last 500 years; before that they were largely settled by Danes and Norwegians. The streets are named after Norwegian kings, and their language is a marvelous combination of Norwegian language patterns coupled with Scottish vocabulary.
We reach Jarlshof, literally the house of the Earl, and there is a ruin of a medium sized stone house with more-or-less modern dimensions. The treat, though, is that (like Scara Brae in the Orkneys) a large storm uncovered ruins of dwellings dating back more than 4,000 years, built partly underground but covered by sand over the years.
The people who lived here were smart, and inventive. They created archways and strong tunneled wheel-houses, for living, for storage, or so the anthropologists and archaeologists surmise. The truth is, no one knows how or why, or even who made these dwellings. No one really knows whether they died out, or were driven away when the Northmen invaded, or if they assimilated – most of the Orkneys and Shetland Islands have a large portion of Nordic blood running in their veins.
Seeing these early dwellings is a thrill, and it is further thrilling knowing that there may be even earlier dwellings underneath these ones. No one wants to destroy what they have found so far to search for earlier peoples.
Equally thrilling is that while we are touring Jarlshof, the sun breaks through and the landscape looks different, no longer shades of grey and diffuse with fog, now it is bright and shines with energetic colors.
You never know when suddenly you will find a treasure, and today, as I was exiting through the Visitor Center, I saw some truly gorgeous scarves, in classic colors with classic patterns, created by a Scottish Heritage foundation. I couldn’t resist. Sometimes you see something special and you know it. This scarf thrills my heart.
Leaving Jarlhof, we are stopped by a gate across the road and a red light. The road crosses the airport landing strip, and a plane is landing, stopping all traffic in both directions until the gates are lifted once again. We watch the plane land, and then we proceed. I’ve since learned from Ann Cleeves that this is Sumburgh Airport, into which investigators and medical examiners fly from Aberdeen when there are all these murders in Shetland.
Our ride home is beautiful, again the hills with sheep and cows and ponies, even a few goats. We see small farms, we reach Lerwick where the Viking Jupiter is docked and see granite and sandstone buildings, a high street for shopping and modern supermarkets. Our guide is very proud to tell us that most of the shops in the Shetlands are privately owned, with very few chain stores. Shopping is more personal. Mail order through the internet is iffy – because everything has to come in by air or by sea, weather plays a big role, particularly the wind and rain, and no one guarantees “next-day” delivery.
Back on board, we both choose Malabar beef curry with roasted carrots and are delighted. Afterwards, we go down to the main lounge for coffee, then to the spa to exercise and to recover from our morning.
I try to carve a time each day when I can write this journal while our memories are still fresh, but there is so much! I wake up in the middle of the night remembering new things I need to tell you about!
We are starting to think about packing. Every time we think about it, we put it off. Our ship just departed Shetland for Bergen, Norway, where we will spend the day tomorrow, then depart on Monday for home. We can pack tomorrow.
Leaving Shetland – even the skies and seas are the Shetland colors of my scarf!
Maybe this was the best day of our trip?
British Isles: Aberdeen Exceeds Expectations
We had low expectations for Aberdeen, but thanks to a truly great guide on our Aberdeen historical and architectural tour, we now see Aberdeen in a whole new light.
Our first impression as we drive around, is how very clean Aberdeen is. Our guide, Andy, told us that when COVID struck, and tourism dwindled to nearly nothing, the city took a very preemptive move to ask the oil and gas companies for funds to pressure wash and clean all the granite buildings. The difference is astonishing. The grey granite of Aberdeen sparkles!
The Historic Aberdeen tour started with a drive through the area with the private schools, leading to a visit at two universities where they had recently cleaned everything, and it was stunningly beautiful. We were able to visit the old library, classroom and chapel.
Continuing on, we go to Fitbee/Footee, a picturesque fishing village tired of all the tour buses coming through and taking photos into their windows (!). My great favorite at the beach in Fittee is the mobile sauna booths. Such creative enterprise!
We hit the high points of downtown, the shopping streets, and the architectural highlights.
Then we stop at Union Terraces, surrounded by the King’s Theatre, St. Mark’s Cathedral, The Andrew Carnegie Library, and a modern apartment complex built around an old church tower. We visit an impressive statue of William Wallace; Andy tells us to be sure to read the inscription and narrative at the bottom of the statue:
“Go back to your masters, and tell them that we came not to treat, but to fight and set Scotland free.”
(Answer of Wallace to the English Friars sent to negotiate a pacific treaty with him before the battle of Stirling Bridge.)
We end the day with our old friends, having dinner in Manfredi’s. AdventureMan and I had the Brodetto, an Italian seafood stew, tasty – some might call it spicy, but it was not hot spicy, just tasty spicy. We shared stories, talked about our time in Saudi Arabia and in Germany, talked about common family issues and advice columns, and we laughed a lot. It was a delightful way to end a wonderful day. Below is our sunset en route to Kirkwall, in the Orkney Islands!
British Isles: Great Fun in Edinburgh
Early rising today as we are in Group 2 and meeting up at 7:45 am in the Star theatre to tender in to port to catch our bus. Whew! We had a quick breakfast – I am back to oatmeal now that the novelty of so much variety has worn off. We pack up our quiet boxes (it looks like hearing aids, but it allows the guide to speak to us as we are walking along without broadcasting to the world), our windbreakers, our phones, cameras and make sure we have everything we need.
They call our group quickly after group one (Group one is going to play golf at Saint Andrew’s; we are going on the panoramic tour of Edinburgh which is riding around in the bus about one hour looking at important things, then walking up the King’s Mile to the Edinburgh Castle. It is August, the month of the Tattoo, and the Castle has huge grandstands set up for people to come and watch this historical ceremony.
It is also the month of several festivals, so we are glad our bus is first out and full of people who are on time and board quickly. We have the streets to ourselves, shared only with the children and their backpacks headed to school. But look at the skies – so grimy! I try not to think about particulates and to breathe shallowly.
The tour shows us all kinds of buildings – housing for rich and poor, schools, different architectural styles, different kinds of stone and decorations, statues of important men and homes of some of Edinburgh’s famous men. Edinburgh, and Saint Patrick’s Cathedral in Dublin, give of thick Game of Thrones vibes to me. We park and hike up the hill to the castle, and the King’s Mile, where we are on our own for an hour and the crowds begin arriving.
Below are the grandstands built to seat audiences for the Grand Tattoo. It gives me shivers and chills just to imagine sitting there.
You can see the same grandstands behind us.
We make a quick stop at the Castle Arms Pub, where they very kindly allow us to use their facilities, then we hike up to the castle, and down the King’s Mile. Then back up the King’s Mile, and we still have 15 minutes to spare so we head back to the Castle Arms Pub to have a coffee and an IRN-BRU (special Scottish soft drink) to thank them for allowing us to stop earlier. Our guide picks us up on the way back down the hill, and everyone going back to the boat is on time, again. We love traveling with Viking people.
When we get back to the port, we decide to explore a little before heading back to the ship, so we look for the grocery store the guide has told us about to see a little of how the real Scots live, or at least where they shop. It is an Asda grocery, but once inside, it sure has the feel of a Walmart, with signs about price rollbacks and arrows, clothing racks and foods – its a supermarket, not unlike you would find in France or Spain or Pensacola. The goods are goods like we would buy in Pensacola. We just see one thing we know is genuinely Scottish:
When we get back to port, we board the tender and are back on the ship very shortly. It’s been another great day on this trip, bright sunshine, warm but temperate weather, zero complaints.
We both chose lunch from the noodle shop, broccoli and stir fried shrimp and mushrooms for both. And dessert, of course. Blueberry sorbet, and it is wonderful.
We need a trip to the Nordic Spa, the bubbly hot wave pool down on the first deck, with a snow room, a steam room and lovely serene changing rooms with saunas. Sheer bliss.
We have unruly neighbors. This afternoon we hears thumps and screams amidst the shouting and arguing and finally AdventureMan called security and asked them to make a call to check on their well-being. It stopped for a while. It’s started up again.
We see the name Lothian on buses and small stores. AdventureMan tells me Lothian is the name of the lowland region that includes Edinburgh, lying between the southern shore of the Firth of Forth and the Lammermuir Hills and the Moorfoot Hills. So you take the high road and I’ll take the low road . . . . Firth is a cognate of fjord, a Norse word meaning a narrow inlet. Thank you, AdventureMan. Now we are leaving Edinburgh.
We would come back to Edinburgh again. There is so much history here we just skimmed over. The Romans. Hadrian’s Wall. We need to come back.
We’ve finished dinner, but we haven’t finished chatting, and there is a big block of something (?) floating off starboard side and people start rushing over to take a picture of the “iceberg.”
I have no idea what it really was, but I’m pretty sure it wasn’t an iceburg.
Sunset en route to Aberdeen
I haven’t said much about shopping. It’s because I haven’t shopped much. Our great quest on arrival in London was to find good cheese and good wine to have in our cabin. It thrills us to sit out on our balcony with good cheese and a nice glass of wine as we sail away.
Most of the trips we take are busy. These cruises are what you make of them. Some people are really laid back and mostly are on the trip for the cruise experience; they love the shows and on-board games and entertainment (there are better cruise lines for that.) One group on this trip is about golf, and another group is about visiting gardens, and they meet up at night and have great conversations, regaling one another with discoveries and anecdotes. Some love visiting wineries and distilleries at every port. My husband and I are mostly into history, early history for me, military history for my husband. We have lists of what we want to see and scurry to hit our priorities. It can be exhausting – and exhilarating. Shopping, however, gets tucked in where it can.
I found some cool Christmas gifts at the Canturbury Cathedral. I bought chocolate with Irish whiskey and a Celtic coffee mug in Dublin, more chocolate in Wales, and a tin of tea with a dragon on it! That’s about it so far. Some people came back from Edinburgh laden with shopping bags. Most of their shopping was gorgeous woolens, but I have woolens, and I live in Pensacola, Florida, where woolens are mostly irrelevant (and too itchy for me.) So we’re really not spending much. We ARE having a terrific time.
I wish we had another day at sea before Aberdeen; I need time to integrate all these new sights and ideas. No such luck! On one cruise, with several sea days, a friend of the ship’s captain told us that days-at-sea were a hardship for the ship’s crew, that the one thing that can cause big trouble is bored passengers. I can imagine! And I am a woman who needs time to ponder and to integrate!
British Isles: Kirkwall, Scara Brae – The Best Day of Our Trip?
We think this day was the best day of our trip. We think every day of this trip has been stellar, above expectations, because we expected both heat and rain, and have had neither. We have had glorious days and breathtaking experiences, and today was the best of the best.
Thank you, AdventureMan, for helping me out with photos. I wish I had more.
We wanted to see two major geographical locations coming to Kirkwall, and we got to see them, and more.
One was Scapa Flow, a huge inland harbor, one of the largest inland harbors in the world. Vikings used it as a natural harbor for centuries. The British kept a fleet there in WWI, and the Germans scuttled their ships there after WWI rather than surrender the ships to the British.
A German U-boat came in after 1939 and sunk the Royal Oak, a British battleship, and over 800 people perished. Among them were 16 year old boys working on the ships with the Navy, causing such outrage in Britain that they no longer recruited 16 year olds.
For the British, the Scapa Flow is a memorial on the level of Pearl Harbor for the Americans. It’s a protected area.
Continuing on, we were able to see the Stone Circles of Brodgar and Stromness, These huge circles of stone pre-date Stonehenge by centuries.
And then we reach our goal, Scara Brae.
Scara Brae was discovered by accident when a huge storm uncovered stone dwellings buried by sand and soil, which were beginning to erode away. The dwellings are over 5,000 years old, created to shelter from wind and cold, to store goods, and to house families. There are areas created for food preparation, food storage and cooking, areas for sleeping, and a special area for crafting items like pottery and tools to make life easier.
Many people today think we are smarter than earlier man, but when I look at the smart things these people created to make their lives livable, I believe they were every bit as smart as we are, and in some ways, smarter.
Look how closely these stones fit together to keep the earth out of their houses, fitted without mortar. Our archaeologist guide tells us there is no way to date a stone wall like this, that the inhabitants of the Orkneys build their walls the same way to this day, only now they also use mortar. Traditionally, they will put pointy flat stones on top, vertically, to discourage sheep and cattle from trying to get in (or out). In the museum there are artifacts – combs, needles, tools – which help date the findings.
It is a beautiful location, by the sea. It was a thrilling visit.
”Graham Watt, the 7th Laird of Breckness, who unearthed the world famous neolithic of Skara Brae in 1850 put in a seawall to forestall further erosion and archaeological experts have excavated several of the houses, although more exist still underground.” (I believe this quote came from a Scara Brae booklet, but I am not sure. 🤔)
On the way back, our bus drives slowly by a series of Neolithic marvels, the Stones of Stenness, the Ring of Brodgar and the tomb at Maeshowe. The bus isn’t allowed to stop because separate bus tours go to those sites (bureaucracy is international!)
(For a lot of fun, read Ann Cleeves newest book in the Shetland/Orkneys Inspector Perez series, The Killing Stones. It is better if you read all the Ann Cleeves Shetland series first, but I read this as a standalone and then started reading the Shetland series, and it worked just fine. )
“The Stones of Stenness are part of one of Europe’s richest archeological landscapes—the legacy of a Neolithic society that flourished between 3800 and 2200 B.C., after the introduction of agriculture but before the advent of metal tools. A mile to the northwest, on higher ground, is another mesmerizing assemblage of megaliths in open space: the Ring of Brodgar, a stone circle some three hundred and forty feet in diameter. To the east is the tomb at Maeshowe, where, beneath a grass-covered mound, Stenness-size slabs anchor a thirteen-foot-high chamber with a corbelled roof. Like Stonehenge and other Late Stone Age sites, Maeshowe has a solar alignment: on the midwinter solstice, the setting sun shines down the entrance passage. Together, these monuments, which are part of a UNESCO World Heritage complex called the Heart of Neolithic Orkney, seem to constitute a minimalist holy land.” (Another regrettably unsourced quote.)
Back in Kirkwall, we decided to have lunch and return to the boat later. We found an Italian restaurant and feasted on Caprese Salad; AdventureMan had a specialty Seafood pasta and I had Spaghetti Aglio Oglio. After lunch, we visited St. Magnus Cathedral, one of the oldest churches in the British Isles. There was a community flower show/competition – the sort of event I love. Groups and individuals created lavish floral displays around the church and won prizes for the best in several categories. It was magnificent and the cathedral was full of people! Then, to celebrate, we had ice cream at the famous Daily Scoop.
Kirkwall is a place to which we would happily return. There is so much more to see and learn.
If you think I am amazing because I remember all these details, you will be happy to know that I have forgotten much, but that I kept a daily journal that reminds me of the details of our daily life on board the ship and at our destinations. Honestly, now we have trouble remembering which day we were in which city.
We tendered back to the ship and enjoyed a deeply satisfying nap before meeting up with our friends for dinner.
The food on board Viking Jupiter is fantastic. It’s a great life, being a grown-up, having options. One night we can focus on salads and seafood, another night on soups or Chinese specialties, another night on roasted salmon and sides – we can choose what we want to eat, and we can choose how much. Viking makes little tiny desserts, maybe a quarter cup of chocolate mousse with a meringue star on top, or one small scoop of ice cream – or two very large scoops with toppings, whatever is your pleasure.
When we get back to our room, it is newly cleaned, every night, with fresh towels and clean sheets, all set up for a good night’s sleep.
It’s not like we live like this at home. We cook, we clean, we keep up the yard, we repair the house, we handle our grown-up responsibilities. For just this short time, it is so wonderful to be taken care of.
I have to give full credit to my husband for most of the Scara Brae photos. I also take full responsibility for the fact that there is a jumble of Scara Brae photos in the middle of this post in no order. Somehow they all got grouped and I can’t figure out how to ungroup them. I used to laugh at my elders who struggled with technology, and now karma is biting me in the butt, and once again I am humbled.
British Isles: Ullapool and What Day is This?
Our day started slowly, thank goodness. We are still sailing from Belfast to Ullapool, and we don’t expect to land until 1:00. Later we figure it out – at this time of year, there can be huge morning fogs. Most of the time it starts burning off around late morning. You can’t see much through the thick fog.
Some people are sleeping in, some are doing laundry. We have breakfast with our friends, then we hit the spa. We are ready to kick back. We are having a lot of fun, enjoying all the activity, and the truth is also – we are aging. We need to rest. I need time to process and integrate all the new sights I am seeing and cultural differences I am experiencing.
We are excited about our tour today, The Scenic Assynt. We tendered in, and boarded our bus. It got off to a surprising start. We were all aboard and the bus started. Two minutes into the trip, the air conditioning went off and the bus became stuffy very quickly. Formerly civil Viking tourists became rude, and shouted that we needed AC, but I think the driver needed the extra power to attack the hill heading out of the port. The bus rumbled and shuddered, and the guide was doing her best to soothe the savage beasts but was also on her phone to headquarters trying to get a back up bus and there wasn’t any.
It got better. The AC came back on, and we stopped at a geological reserve.
Here is where I have to make a sad confession. This reserve was wonderful. It had special stations to demonstrate how very old rock had extruded and somehow become above the much younger rock.
When I uploaded my photos, of this trip into the Assynt, and the next trip, in the Orkneys, I somehow didn’t save them to the desktop, and carefully deleted them from my camera and card.
Fortunately AdventureMan took some photos, and I had some on my phone, but sadly, the trips were both wonderful and I can’t show you how greatly wonderful they were. I am so sorry.
We also stopped by the ruins of an old castle en route to the small fishing village of Lochinver, very beautiful, very small, and I took a walk in the opposite direction of the others, and it was so QUIET.
One thing you don’t get on a cruise ship is a lot of quiet. Viking ships are quieter than most, but you get 900 people together, there’s going to be some noise. For the first time ever, we have a loudly quarreling, quarrelsome couple on one side of us. Fortunately, it is sporadic, not all the time.
With the fog rolling in to this small fishing village of Lochinver, it was so silent. It wasn’t even muffled, it was silent. My ears were ringing with the silence! I loved it!
I rely on my photos to tell the story, and without them, I can’t remember all that I saw. What I do remember is the warmth with which we were greeted at Ullapool, in the Scottish Highlands, that they truly made us feel appreciated. I remember thinking I would love to come back to Ullapool, so small, so isolated, with so few tourists. There were families, and hikers and people from many nations, but not the thousands that come in on the ships. We were the only ship in port this day.
Much of the time is foggy in Ullapool, in August, and then there are times when the fog burns off. Then the fog comes back again, and then, just as the sun is setting, it might break through.
We have reservations this night at Manfredi’s, the ship’s Italian specialty restaurant, and are shown to a quiet table by the window in the back of the restaurant. We love it. Our waiters are kind and funny, and help us make great choices for dinner.
The Death of Bees by Lisa O’Donnell
Death of Bees was another powerful recommendation by National Public Radio.
I believe in a greater power, in a God who sends things my way and that I am meant to be paying attention. Several books have been recommended to me lately which I didn’t choose, or might have avoided had I known how painfully they dealt with poor parenting and children in the depths of horrific poverty.
Here is what the lead into the book says:
Today Is Christmas Eve,
Today is my birthday,
Today I am fifteen,
Today I buried my parents
in the back yard.
Neither of them were beloved.
Oh my goodness! I am sucked in immediately. And immediately I am overcome by the grinding nature of poverty, the enormous amount of energy it takes just to be fed, to have a roof over your head, to function in the bureaucracy that seeks to ameliorate the burdens of poverty.
I am horrified by the lives of innocent children in the hands of people who should never have responsibility for anyone, even themselves, their decision making skills are so non-existent. There are parents who have no idea what self-sacrifice GOOD parenting requires, who raise children who are often trying to survive their own parents.
The Death of Bees has redemption. It has two sisters who love one another and are smarter than the average child. It has a neighbor who notices, not in a snoopy or intrusive way, but in a kind, helping and ultimately sacrificial way. It has moments of black humor, when the neighbor’s dog keeps digging at the parental graves in the backyard and bringing bones inside just at the worst moments.
Ultimately, it is a tale of survival, in spite of the parents, in spite of the system, in spite of betrayals by family and friends. There is a glimmer of hope that life may be different for these sisters, if they can survive their upbringing and overcome their childhood.
Now, go read the book 🙂
Recent Comments
Catherine on Donna Leon Crossing Cultu… intlxpatr on Ignoring the Law thani on Ignoring the Law Anon. on British Soldier Kidnapped, Esc… Reeva Mills on Cahors to Bordeaux, Preparing… Wikipedia Donate Button
Amazina
Early Voting in Florida
Here There and Everywhere 