Visiting Rural Shetland

Thursday,  April 13th had us in Lerwick, Scotland. It was a departure from castles and loch monsters. We visited David and Isla of Keolka croft in the Shetland Islands.

Our trip was drawing to a close. We would be heading to Bergen, Norway the following day and then catching a convoluted flight to Germany on our way back to San Francisco.

But on Thursday, we would be on a bus gazing at the landscape around Lerwick before grabbing a small Reestit mutton soup and bannock lunch at Herrislea House run by David and Isla.

After the lunch, we were taken out to a field by David and Isla to see some Shetland ponies and Shetland sheepdogs. And oh yes, sheep, lots of sheep. 

The ponies were indeed very small... and furry. I can't recall when I've seen such small ponies. Apparently there are only 1,000 of these Shetland ponies today.

David demonstrated how they train the sheepdogs to gather and corral the sheep to their pens. It really was quite remarkable.

A good teacher friend of mine had a Shetland sheepdog (also known as Shelties) in Illinois which she named Shelton.

Our kids loved to dog-sit Shelton. 

That was the first time I'd heard of a Shetland sheepdog which I thought before was a miniature collie. Apparently, there was some controversy about them being considered a collie so they are formally known as a Shetland Sheepdog.

We were then handed these incredibly adorable puppies. I think they are border collies.

You know I'm not a dog person or a cat person. I'm OK with goldfish. 

However, I was ready to adopt this little guy and take him home. In fact, everybody had fallen in love with the puppies. 

We were laughingly told that the puppies would be counted before the bus left.

So OK. We didn't see castles or moats or lavish royal yachts or historical places, but everybody was smiling on the way back to the ship.

Our trip was ending and we had to begin packing for our flight back home.

Looking for Nessie at Loch Ness

We were docked at Invergordon, Scotland and had signed up for an excursion to Loch Ness and Urquhart Castle. We just didn't feel like we could come this far and not try looking for the Loch Ness Monster, a.k.a. Nessie.

Cal and Myra had gone on a free bus tour of Inverness, but Craig and Terry were game to try looking for Nessie too.

Our excursion was from 12:30 to 4:30. 

Uh oh... It started to rain... a lot. However, during the 1 hour drive to Loch Ness and Urquhart Castle the rain abated. 

Our guide, Sonya was funny and amazing. She has a beautiful voice and sang a lot of Gaelic songs for us. She also had an amazing store of knowledge about the area. 

Sonya said the Highlands are so named because there are 278 mountains in the area. A munro is a Scottish mountain with an elevation of more that 3,000 feet. 

The area we were docked in is called Invergordon. Inver means mouth, so it's mouth of the Gordon river.

Inverness means 'mouth of Ness.'

There are 130 distilleries in Scotland. She laughingly said men are like good whisky if they age well.

The Romans built the Hadrian Wall between England and Scotland.

Gaelic was the Highlands' native language until the 1800s. Then they became bilingual until Gaelic was forbidden. Now only 5% of the people speak Gaelic. 

Sonya laughingly said Scottish people don't have a good diet because they don't like to eat vegetables. This is why they always lose any sports match.

The Scots just like to cheer for any team that can beat England. However, they do well with golf since it doesn't require a lot of exertion and Scotland has 550 golf courses.

Loch means lake. 

Loch Ness has more water than all of England.

And by the way, said Sonya, "Braveheart was actually filmed in Ireland and starred an Australian actor with a dodgy Scottish accent."  😂

After seeing the Visitors Center we walked down to Urquhart Castle where many battles had been fought.

The trebuchet is a French word for a kind of catapult that was used to attack the castle.

I kept looking toward the loch to see if there might be something moving there. I was told someone had recorded a sighting few days earlier. 

Unfortunately, we never did catch a glimpse of Nessie.

Ah well...

The Royal Britannia Yacht and Edinburgh Castle

Because of the rough ocean waves we sailed to the Port of Rosyth instead of Edinburgh. The Port of Rosyth is on the Firth of Forth. (Wow! That's confusing!) The Firth of Forth is the estuary, or firth, of several Scottish rivers including the River Forth. (Now I'm more confused.) 

I know we sailed under three bridges to get to the port.

The drive to Edinburgh took 45 minutes. Our guide was Fergus. He told us about Thomas Bouch, the architect/engineer of the Tay Rail Bridge that collapsed a year after being constructed killing 90 people. Bouch would die a year later from the stress of the catastrophe. 

Fergus said that's how we get the term 'botched job.' 

We arrived at the port of Edinburgh and went to see the Royal Yacht Britannia. This is the yacht that the royal family often sailed in.

It was interesting to see the rooms the royals slept in and the huge dining room where they often entertained important people. You could even see the jeep Queen Elizabeth liked to drive. They appeared not to live in excessively luxurious quarters.

The support staff  had a minimalist sleeping area BUT the laundry room was HUGE. 

It was fun seeing the yacht that the royals once sailed and relaxed in. Apparently, Charles and Diana also sailed on this yacht with the rest of the family.

Yes, we wore masks all the time. 

Lunch was at the Apex Hotel. We all had a chicken dish and apple crumble for dessert. It was OK.

We enjoyed Fergus' commentary as we drove through Edinburgh. 

He pointed out Edinburgh Castle up on the hilltop.

Fergus also explained how the old homes had all these chimneys because they didn't have modern central heating in the past.

Each room had to have a fireplace for warmth which then needed its own chimney.

Fergus told us the story of Half-Hangit Maggie. 

Apparently Maggie's baby had died and she was accused of killing it. She was sentenced to be hanged. Miraculously, she survived the hanging (probably scaring the fellow carrying her coffin) and they couldn't hang her again since she'd technically already been hanged. She was henceforth called Half-Hangit Maggie. 

We arrived at Edinburgh Castle and stood in line to see more crown jewels. 

We saw the royal crown and the Stone of Destiny which is called the Coronation Stone.

It was delivered to Westminster Abbey for King Charles III's coronation on May 6th.

We ventured into the Great Hall of Edinburgh Castle and saw many of the armor that was used by knights of the time.

As we left Edinburgh, we passed by the statue of George IV. He apparently wore a kilt and made it popular even though he was very overweight and did not look good in it. The statue apparently flatters him.

Dinner was wonderful followed by a musical presentation of Broadway musicals that we really enjoyed.

It was another happy day and tomorrow we'd be looking for Nessie.

Orkney's Stone Age Village in the Rain

It was now Monday, April 10th and we were in Kirkwall, Scotland. We had breakfast with our travel buddies and were on the bus by 8:30 for our excursion to Skara Brae, a UNESCO Neolithic site.

I got this from ae Expeditions.

Skara Brae dates back to Neolithic times, over 5,000 years ago. Radiocarbon dating suggests that people were living in Skara Brae for around 650 years between 3180 B.C.E and 2,500 B.C.E, making it older than Stonehenge and the Great Pyramids of Giza.

And guess what! It was raining!

After so many days of expecting rain, it was finally raining... A LOT!

We were able to use the rain covers for our shoes at last. And yes, we brought our umbrellas also.

I think the people of that time must have been a little shorter.

This is a re-creation of what their homes must have looked like. You could imagine how difficult their lives were.

It wasn't easy to survive so many of their daily challenges.

We then walked over to Skaill House which was the home of the 7th Laird of Brekness who discovered Skara Brae.

The Lairds of Skaill House:

The 7th Laird was William Graham Watt who served as Laird for 56 years. William Watt discovered Skara Brae after a storm in 1850 and excavated 4 houses in the Neolithic village.

Henry Scharbau (1822-1904) was the grandfather of the 11th Laird of Breckness. He spent time in Japan and brought back these souvenirs.

Our last stop was the Ring of Brodgar. It is 103 meters in diameter and is the 3rd largest stone ring in England (Oops! I've been corrected by Jennifer. It should have been Scotland. 😔 But Wikipedia says it's the 3rd largest in the British Isles.)  It dates back to the 3rd millennium BC and once consisted of 60 stones. There are only 36 left standing now. There were also 13 prehistoric burial mounds in the location.

It wasn't quite as impressive as Stonehenge, but interesting none the less.

When we returned to the ship, I was surprised to find myself napping for 2 hours. It was starting to catch up with me.

Dinner at the Chef's Table with Craig and Terry that evening was surprisingly good. It was supposed to be a California cuisine. 

It ended the day very happily and deliciously. 😀

Giants Causeway, Belfast

 It was now Saturday, April 8th and we were in Belfast, Northern Ireland. 

It was a beautiful morning and not a rain cloud in sight!

We had breakfast with our travel buddies and were out on the deck at 8:40 for our excursion to Giant's Causeway.

According to Wikipedia:

The Giant's Causeway (Irish: Clochán an Aifir) is an area of about 40,000 interlocking basalt columns, the result of an ancient volcanic fissure eruption.

According to legend, the columns are the remains of a causeway built by a giant. 

The story goes that the Irish giant Fionn mac Cumhaill (Finn MacCool), from the Fenian Cycle of Gaelic mythology, was challenged to a fight by the Scottish giant Benandonner. Fionn accepted the challenge and built the causeway across the North Channel so that the two could meet. In one version of the story, Fionn defeats Benandonner. In another, Fionn hides from Benandonner when he realises that his foe is much bigger than he is. Fionn's wife, Sadhbh, disguises Fionn as a baby and tucks him in a cradle. When Benandonner sees the size of the "baby", he reckons that its father, Fionn, must be a giant among giants. He flees back to Scotland in fright, destroying the causeway behind him so that Fionn would be unable to chase him down. Across the sea, there are identical basalt columns (a part of the same ancient lava flow) at Fingal's Cave on the Scottish isle of Staffa, and it is possible that the story was influenced by this.

I enjoyed seeing gorse everywhere blanketing the area in gold.

It was a bit of a walk to the causeway. We were given audio guides to learn the history of the area as we walked down the road.

Art has seen similar natural phenomena at Devil's Postpile National Monument in California.

I enjoyed this scene along the beach with everyone else before we headed back to the bus.

We had a fancy dinner with our travel buddies at the Chef's Table. It was supposed to have an Indian flavor to it which was interesting.

We enjoyed a musical presentation that evening and were surprised to return to our room and find these huge chocolate bunnies that our cabin steward, Roy had left us.

Oh gosh! It was Easter! Time was flying by and we'd lost track of time.

Sunday, April 9th was supposed to be our day in Ullapool, Scotland, but it was cancelled due to strong winds making it dangerous to send us to shore in the small tenders.

We spent the day doing laundry, and chatting with some very interesting tour members.

Al from Alabama is a history teacher who told us of his rather nervous experiences in Russia. We also saw George and Suzette who we spent time with in the Dublin pub.

Truly, half the fun of traveling are the people you meet and the stories you trade with each other.

The Beatles Experience in Liverpool

There were oil derricks out in the ocean when we docked in Liverpool.

We met our travel buddies for an early breakfast at 6:30 and were out on the pier by 8:00. 

Although some COVID rules were relaxed everyone was encouraged to wash their hands before each meal. 

Since we were all once Beatles fans, this day was anticipated to be lots of fun.

And then, here we were. Liverpool! Yeah! Yeah! Yeah!

I have to say I was surprised. 

When we first heard in the 60's about the Beatles, I'd had the impression that Liverpool was a smaller shipping and industrial community.

We were informed by our guide that Liverpool has the second highest number of art galleries, national museums, parks, etc. in the UK. Only London has more.

Our first stop was the Beatles Story Museum.

We saw what the Cavern where they used to perform looked like as well as exhibits showing the path to their super stardom.

And yes, we had to have our photo taken at Penny Lane. We tried to do a photo like the one the Beatles did on their Abbey Road album, but ah well.. This wasn't Abbey Road. It was fun anyway.

We were told the story about John Lennon when he lived with his Aunt Mimi. John was scolded by his aunt for often climbing over a wall to play on the grounds of Strawberry Field and he would say, "It's nothing to get hung about." Those words would be in his song, Strawberry Field which used to be a Salvation Army children's home.

We rode around Liverpool admiring all the cultural, religious and other important places around Liverpool. 

Granted, seeing Paul McCartney's home had us most intrigued. Travel Buddy, Cal found this awesome Carpool Karaoke video with Paul McCartney that shows where our knowledgeable tour guide must have gotten a lot of her information. And yes, we did see where he signed his name on the Penny Lane sign. 😁 And we also saw many of the places Paul talks about in the video.

The Palm House was OK, but you know that for people from Hawaii, it was not very interesting.

What was most surprising was our driver, John. He was our bus driver when we went to Caernarfon Castle the day before! What are the chances that of all the tour buses around Liverpool, he'd be driving our bus?

We only got to see this statue from the back as we rode past so I had to get this from Wikipedia. 

It was a fun day and we are all still enjoying the memories of it.

Caernarfon Castle, Wales

When we'd visited the British Isles with the kids in 1990, we stopped in Wales and explored Caerphilly Castle. 

Caerphilly Castle was built between 1267 and 1271 and is the biggest castle in Wales, second only to Windsor. Art thought it would be fun to see another Welsh castle this time to compare it with Caerphilly. We'd seen Caerphilly when it was cold and rainy. We wondered what Caernarfon would be like.

After a leisurely lunch with... yes, gelato for dessert, we boarded our bus at 1:00.

Caernarfon is huge and the sun was shining.

How awesome is that?

And not a rain cloud in sight.

We were allowed to explore the castle at our own pace after an interesting explanation of its history.

Caernarfon dates back to the 13th century when King Edward I began his conquest of Wales.

We were told that King Charles III was crowned Prince of Wales on that circular pad at this castle in July, 1969.

There were so many places to explore.

You could see the town from the top. Can you imagine running up and down these stairs? It did not look like a comfortable place to live.

They said this was like a machine gun. 

Hmmm....

Not exactly.

However, you could shoot from two angles which would confuse the enemy.

I rather liked these fun gutter pipe holders. I've never seen anything like it.

We returned to the ship where we joined our travel buddies for a Port Talk about our next stop in Liverpool.

Dinner was wonderful , but we opted not to go to the musical show that evening because.... gosh... we were tired.

Our guide, Dee told us that our Caernarfon bus driver, John was going to be driving to Liverpool the following day where he'd be picking up another tour bus job.

What a coincidence since we knew we'd be going to Liverpool too.