I decided to take a day off driving today, wth the sun shining we headed out. First stop Fort Charlotte, one street away overlooking the harbour…..with 2 Viking ships in port things looked busy.

Then onto the Shetland Museum, and in particular their fabric collection with Shetland lace and fair isle heavily featured.

Walking back to town there were cruise ship passengers everywhere. Even the Bressy Ferry had to dodge tenders from the ships. With the sunny weather I decided to revisit my walk from the other day, but in reverse. I got some great photos with my Sigma camera but unfortunately they won’t load tonight. They have done in the past so I’ll try again tomorrow.

Despite the sun shining in Lerwick as we headed north the rain and wind set in. By the time we got to the cliffs of Esha Ness conditions resembled those we’d had at Nordkap in Norway.

Hazel elected to stay in the car and watch people trying to put on coats whilst I went for a walk and took some photos.

There were no paths, let alone fences, so I felt a bit nervous going to the edge. Eventually I got on my hands and knee’s and crawled to the edge with the surf and swirling spray far below me.

Retreating from cliffs we explored a local museum in a small house with lots of items and photos from the past. Life looked pretty tough then. Time for lunch at Frankie’s, the northern most Fish and Chip shop in the UK. The bowls of huge mussels looked amazing whilst the scampi and haddock were fresh as…

We spent the rest of the afternoon scenic driving back to Lerwick. The single lane tracks with passing places were no problem, but some of the sheep demand right of way. Shetland sheep are a lot smaller with shorter legs and are often a brown / black colour.

The scenery is stunning, with big vistas everywhere, but up close

you know it’s Scotland when you see Heather in the hills.

We have a rather wet forecast for this weekend, but decided to press on and travel south today, north tomorrow.

First stop was Hoswick, a small village on the coast with an excellent Visitor Center, and a number of specialist crafts. It was a real sunshine and showers day, perfect for photography.

One of the workshops we visited was run by Karlin Anderson, who crafts some beautiful jewellery. With a big birthday looming later on this year Hazel selected a necklace featuring a blue topaz surrounded by green tourmaline’s. It reflects the blue sea and green land right viewed tight outside the workshop windows, and will be a great reminder of our time here.

It was a short drive to St Ninians Isle, which is joined to the mainland by a sand ayre or tombolo. With the sun shinning between rain fronts, and the wind howling it had a great atmosphere. You could easily imagine the Vikings raiding the Chapel there, with a hoard of silver being discovered later on.

Despite the wild conditions somebody had set up a portable sauna in the dunes, and a few people ran out for a quick dip !

With the weather just holding up our final stop was Sumburgh Head, the southernmost point of Shetlands mainland. To get there we had to go through the airport, literally. The main road crosses the end of the runway ! and is closed by barriers when a plane takes off or lands. We were both amused to see the painted road sign, no turning off the road and driving up the runway now 😁

The wind was howling with rain fronts lashing us every few minutes as we made it up to the observatory, via a lovely couple.

On our return a puffin landed right in front of Hazel, sadly too fast for me to photograph. I was hanging onto her as we peered over the cliff edges at thousands of seabirds and crashing seas.

We had planned to visit Jarshoff, one of the best archaeological sites in the UK. Sadly it was closed today, perhaps next week ?

It was wet and windy this morning, no worries for Hazel, as she had a knitting lesson booked. Learning to knit with a Maakin Belt. Basically one knitting needle pokes out from a belt around the waist, the other by a hand, this leaves one hand free to control the bairns, or cook me dinner whilst knitting !

With the morning free I visited the Shetland Museum, then walked the Twageos, a headland just around from Lerwick.

After a couple of kilometres the rain really set in, but the scenery was so good I carried on. There’s lots of fresh air here !

After 3 hours I headed back but the, 3 ladies now, were still busy. They had a “free” Fairisle session as well. Good value as a Dutch lady had joined last minute halving the cost. After they left the fun continued as we headed first to the Shetland Textile Museum with some lovely ladies demonstrating knitted and spinning.

Then onto Heaven, otherwise known as Jamieson and Smith Wool Brokers. Lots to tempt and buy here, including machine knitting wool, books and patterns. Our suitcases are full !

We met Hazels tutor in this shop, advising a client on wool selection and colour, she is obviously kept busy. Dropping off our purchases we then headed back into town for the bookshop, including something for Cooper and Rosie, knitting related !

Finally we finished at Jaimiesons shop in town, just a couple of patterns this time. It’s been a great day, especially for Hazel who’s wanted to visit these places for so long now. It’s also been quiet as well, next week over 11000 people will visit from cruise ships !

We had a fairly easy flight yesterday from Iceland to Glasgow, but were dismayed to find our cases and contents soaking wet. They had obviously been left outside in the pouring rain without any cover before being loaded. Our hotel room resembled a Chinese laundry that evening. The trip to Shetland was much better……

It felt like we were walking to the back of the Glasgow airport, and with the prop plane it reminded us of flying to Launnie from Melbourne. However the snacks on board were much better….

It was only an hour and half before landing at Sumburgh Airport. Picking up a hire car we drove to Lerwick where Michael our AirB&B host met us and walked to the property. It’s situated on one of Lerwick’s lanes, no car access, but the car park is close by and it’s only a 2 minute walk into the town center.

We’d been in Lerwick barely an hour before the first wool purchase, there’s a lovely shop 3 minutes away ! Oh dear…..

Hazel did another visit later on whilst I was wandering around, but she does have a class tomorrow, wth a private tutor. I took some pics of 3 iconic locations……

Yes of course, it’s the Lodberrie, home of Detective Jimmy Perez in the TV series Shetland. If you’ve never watched it …..do yourself a favour, the photography and plots are superb.

After missing out a few years back, due to strong winds and delayed docking, we finally got to “do” the iconic Iceland Golden Circle Tour, along with a few thousand others…

First up was Thingvellir National Park. Site of Iceland’s first national “parliament” it is situated astride 2 tectonic plates drifting apart making for dramatic canyons with deep chasms.

Moving across a lunar landscape, made of old lava flows, we headed to our next stop, Geysir. This is home to the original geyser, which gave its name to all others. It has been inactive for a while, but its little brother goes off more regularly. The landscape was full of hot streams with plumes of steam and sulphur drifting across the landscape as we made our way there.

Sure enough it blew just as we arrived, startling everybody. Fortunately we had time to wait for the next one……….

That was rather exciting ! Time for a quick lunch break and onto Gullfoss, passing some Icelandic ponies and more old lava flows.

With lots of recent snowmelt, it seems odd having more water in Summer rather than Winter, the falls were spectacular.

Time to head back to the hotel, but via a different route, hence the Circle route title. They are certainly 3 awesome sites, making a lot of “gold” for Iceland.

It’s time to pack, tomorrow we fly to Glasgow, on route to the Shetland Isles. Time to get some wool, or is that MORE wool ?

Our disembarkation was relatively painless, especially when we realised Wazzim our booked taxi driver was in fact the Spanish model in her full white coat wandering about ! After a short wait Foss Hotel found us a room and we set forth in the drizzle.

We had decided a while back to do something different today, a PUFFIN Cruise 😁 Yes you can never get too many Puffins…..well I didn’t know we were going to see so many yesterday !

The tour was run most efficiently by an all female crew, and it didn’t take long to get suited up in an immersion suit, beanie, goggles and life jacket. Waddling out to the pier for a safety briefing we were soon heading out of the harbour to Engey island with lots and lots of PUFFINS !

We then zoomed over to Akurey island, with the largest breeding colony in Iceland its skies and waters teemed with Puffins

It was really amazing to these beautiful birds so close to a major city. Well done girls 👍 We walked back to the hotel, 3 K’s, with a hot chocolate stop along the way. We also found a lovely Puffin sweater kit…the Shetland wool will have to be really squeezed in.

Out last full day aboard started with a morning call saying the 2 shore excursion’s we had were too close and 1 had to be dropped……down to the Guest Information…..put on standby for one of them after a few words….

Our first option was a wildlife cruise in a branch of Isafjordur. It was a small ship with most of the seating outside. Our guide, Tom, promptly welcomed us to a Puffin cruise, perhaps with some other wildlife. No worries, I thought I wouldn’t see any till Shetland. Tom had a lovely Welsh accent and came from Swansea, so having done my Botany Degree there had a lot to share……no worries Boyo !

Barely out of the harbour we had a humpback whale ahead, and another, and another…..They led us to a Vigur island, full of puffins fishing, flying and standing guard over their burrows.

What a treat ! Our skipper swapped sides as we snapped away and Tom fed us information. After 30 minutes we headed back…

But first we had to stop and meet Octopus, Turbine and Starlight. 3 beautiful Humpback Whales that are regular stars of the fjord.

They were so exciting to see, easily the best tour so far……

We managed a quick bite before queuing up for our second excursion, 2 seats left on the last coach of the day, hooray ! This tour was a 2 hour drive with 3 photo stops and lots of views.

Our final stop was an unusual white sand beach, site of an Eiderduck nesting site, and Artic Tern nests.

That evening we packed and had a final dinner in the restaurant with new friends from Queensland. They are staying onboard for a weeks cruise around Iceland, then onto Greenland, Canada and ending in New York. That’s quite a trip, we’ve greatly enjoyed our time onboard Viking Vela but it’s time for us to move on.

We have another day at Sea today, but not before a 5am sail past Jan Mayen Island. This is home of the northernmost volcano in the world, in the middle of nowhere !(the Greenland Sea actually)

We have a very busy day tomorrow, and leave the ship early the next day…….so the blog might incur a slight delay till normal service resumes. ps we’ve just informed about a full offer on our narrowboat Prime Thyme…..subject to survey she’s sold 😢

Yesterday morning we had a tour around town, including the local Museum.

The stuffed animals were imaginatively displayed, but no substitute for the real thing. The town itself is situated at the end of a steep valley leading to the fjord. Coal mining activity, now stopped, is evident all around.

Out of town the views around are on a big scale. We saw Reindeer, but no polar bears unfortunately.

That afternoon we departed Svalbard, and Norway. Next stop Iceland, but first some beautiful vista’s as we sailed out of the main fjord with smaller ones, and glaciers, leading in.

Our Captain informed us the pilot had seen a polar bear the previous day when piloting out. Despite all our prayers, and everybody leaning out with binoculars and telephoto lenses none were spotted. You will have to make do with a Seagull shot….