Shetland Islands (Lerwick), Scotland

            On Tuesday, 8 Sep 2015, we awoke at 7:30 AM, well ahead of our 9:30 AM alarm.  By 11:15 we headed toward the Island Dining Room, and from there followed a group of passengers just starting to board one of the ship’s tenders.  We sat on the top level – and, yes, the wind was cold!  After a short (five- or ten-minute) ride to the pier, we walked around for a few minutes more until our bus started boarding at 12:00 PM.

Our tour bus departed at 12:20 PM, with tour guide Hamish (James in English) and driver Robert.  Hamish told us facts about the Shetland Islands, where some remains of the Stone Age can be seen.  Dutch discovered great schools of herring here.  Later, the Scots came.



Scalloway Castle

First, we traveled across a landscape of peat and heather-covered moors to nearby Scalloway, the former capital of the Shetlands.  Scalloway offers quite a colorful history.  Patrick Stewart, 2nd Earl of Orkney, built the castle in the late 16th Century to tighten his grip on Shetland, using the local people as slave labor to build and maintain it.  Known for his cruelty, he was hanged for his misdeeds in 1615.  It's an oft-quoted comment on Patrick's ignorance that his execution had to be delayed to give him time to learn the Lord's Prayer.

Since there was no wish to restore the castle, it has been left in ruins.  We explored the first and second floors of the ruins.  Although some passengers climbed the narrow stairway to the upper floors, our tour guide had advised not doing so.  (It didn’t look worth the effort to us!)

After seeing the interior of the castle ruins, we toured the Scalloway Museum, which was very close to the ruins.  An interesting exhibit there was on the "Shetland Bus." When the Germans occupied Norway during WW II, some young Norwegians went by boat to Scalloway under cover of darkness.  Since thousands of British soldiers were stationed in the Shetland Islands at that time, the British trained the Norwegians, and also gave them arms and explosives to perform acts of sabotage.  Some British agents also went to Norway.  On return trips, the boats would carry refugees back to Scalloway.  The “Shetland Bus” was the nickname given to the secret fleet of boats.

During both WW I and WW II, Shetland lost more lives than any other British country relative to population.



Shetland Ponies

From Scalloway, we made a short stop at Carol's Ponies, a Shetland pony farm.  Carol, the owner, told us about these ponies and then answered questions.  Apparently, Shetland ponies used to be in great demand for work in coal mines, but now the market for them is fairly small.

Each time we exited the bus during our tour, we were attacked by swarms of small biting flies, so we were always among the first passengers to re-board the bus.  Then, from the comfort of the bus, we would watch the other passengers swat flies and scratch.  After returning to Lerwick, we boarded a ship’s tender again for our return to the ship.  We were back in our cabin by 3:45 PM.

For dinner, we sat at a table for four with Gail and Jim; then we danced to Jumari in the Explorer’s Lounge.