This part of the blog started out as a discussion of the family history trip of 2014 and never thought I would pick it up again. Surprise, Surprise, last summer a letter inviting us to Denise's cousin's 80th birthday party arrived in the mail. This spurred the idea of returning to Shetland to sight see all the numerous sites of interest we did not have time for before.
Needless to say things progressed rapidly as Denise and Laura were very excited about the idea. This writer had always wanted to return to see certain sites (Puffins, lighthouses, scenic shores etc). Laura then checked the internet for flight information and there was very little available what with the fact WestJet had stopped flying to Europe (Glasgow) so we had to book last October. Thank heavens for Air Transat. Thus this journey plans started to come together. We then booked a hotel to rest and physically deal with jet lag and then arranged a short haul flight to Sumburgh (Shetland). Now we needed a residence for the time we were there and Laura found a flat for rent on the internet. We felt that would work as it was right down near the harbour. This writer is quite familiar with the harbour due the sites shown by Shetland webcams (https://www.shetlandwebcams.com/victoria-pier/).
Time passed quickly and the day (12 July) arrived and we were taking a hired car to get to the airport in Toronto. Pearson Airport was awful as we tried to find our check-in counter and Laura had to find a person with knowledge. At this point we had been there an hour. Laura came back and informed us of the likely counter but as counters were swapped around we had to hover and wait all while standing as there was nothing to sit on. We located some vacant wheelchairs to use as chairs. The airline counter opened up late and an airline person came out to help us as we were walking with difficulty. From that moment on, all went well as we took off on time and arrived a smidgen early.
The Glasgow airport were ready for us more "mature" folks and guided us to our hotel (across a small street) and said our grateful farewells. As it was around 7AM our room was not ready so we went and had a great breakfast. The hotel staff found us and said our rooms were ready (way early) so we all crashed as little sleep happened on the plane. At mid afternoon, the fire alarm went off (groan) so made our way downstairs and outside. False alarm, so we went back to bed for much more additional sleep. Got up around 8PM had dinner and we decided to retire early as we had a 9:30 AM flight to Shetland. All went great as we were up early had breakfast, checked in, and whizzed through security with the help of some lovely Glasgow airport attendants.
We could see our plane being readied for us so all was good. We boarded and then we were told to deplane as there was a problem with our plane. 4 hours later, another plane was brought to the next gate. We were boarded and the flight to Shetland was uneventful. The landing was spectacular as we came in over water, could see the runway and finally did a complete 180 in order to taxi to the arrival gate. The airport had a ramp to get off the plane so made life easy for us. We gathered our bags and walked to the care hire booth to make arrangements for our car. Got our car and headed for Lerwick but this was nerve-wracking for Laura as she had to drive on the wrong side of the road. We went to the busiest grocery store in the history of grocery stores for some necessities and then found our flat where our landlady was waiting for us (kindly sticking her head out the door so we knew exactly where to stop). We have a place on the second floor and a number of windows overlook the harbour and another overlooks the "Market Cross" the town square. Whew!!!
In the AM we had a cereal and headed out to "hunt and gather" food. We found a shop with prepared meals and so we just gathered, never the less, highly successful. This writer found a coffee shop right below our flat and had "nectar from the gods."
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