Day 7: In which we sample the food of Lerwick

 Today was far more active than yesterday, having made it up and down "Da Street" (Commercial Street) twice.

Our first outing was to The Dowry for coffee with Denise's fifth cousin, once removed, Helena Mackay.  The Dowry is so busy that she had to reserve a table just to have coffee!  I have to say, it was a great table as it looked out over the harbour.  Denise and Helena did most of the talking, but Eric, Nigel, and Laura, got a few words in edgewise.  We were lucky to meet Nigel, who is Helena's partner.  After an hour they had to leave as they had some shopping to do for this weekend's family reunion / birthday party.  We're excited to see them, and the rest of the family, on Saturday.

We had to walk back along the Esplanade as they're tearing up parts of Commercial Street for repairs prior to the Tall Ships arriving next week.  We enjoyed the view of the harbour.

We went to the Peerie Shop and picked up some souvenirs and even more postcards.  Some people reading this blog will receive them.  We talked a little to the employees in the store and while they're looking forward to the Tall Ships, there's also some anxiety as to how busy Lerwick will be.  This is one of the first major events (besides Wool Week and the yacht race) since Covid, and it's going to be the busiest thus far.

We have talked a lot about the convenience of where we are, in particular the closeness of the coffee.  To demonstrate, Laura took a picture of where we are versus where the coffee is, and then made some important edits to the photo as you can see below.

After our long and arduous walk in downtown Lerwick, complete with detour, we rested (with coffee from the Blyde Welcome) for the afternoon.  We had dinner reservations at 6.

Laura made arrangements with the restaurant No. 88 so that I could enjoy a nice meal out.  Not only did they rearrange the menu for me, but also extended our reservation time so that I would be able to eat it all!  The walk down was faster than we expected, and we were there 20 minutes early.  It drizzled the whole way down.  We have learned that when the weather report here says a 10% chance of rain, what they really mean is that it will rain 10% of the time.  We have yet to have a day without rain.

 The service at No. 88 was wonderful.  Karen is the manager and took care of all the special arrangements.  The was also a young lad who was very attentive, and he was so busy.  When I complimented him on the service, I got the requisite tin grin from the teenager.  

 

For dinner, I had lamb belly and lamb tortellini with mashed potato, and carrots.  I ate everything.  For those who know me, they know this is a compliment to the food.  Denise had braised beef, and Laura had also had a lamb dish.  For dessert, the ladies had a poached pear with pomegranate sorbet, and I had vanilla ice cream.  Denise would like it mentioned that she had a rhubarb drink!  She loves rhubarb.

On the walk back, it was still drizzling, but Denise held us up, as, surprise, surprise, she found someone to talk to.  I'm sure those of you who know Denise will be shocked.  

On the way home from the restaurant, I stopped in Market Cross and had a picture taken of myself in front of the Tourist Centre.  This is important not because of the Tourist Centre, but because I could wave at the webcam.  For those of you who do not know, Shetland has many webcams and I am a regular follower of them, and the forum attached to the webcams.  Hello everyone!

 Off to bed early as we're off to the islands of Yell and Unst (the two northern most islands of Shetland). 

 

Day 6: in which we imitate sloth

 From the title alone everyone can guess how today went.  No one was up to anything strenuous so we did some things around the flat (all so boring, I won't list here) and took our sweet time accomplishing anything.  The coffee people downstairs probably wondered where we were this morning, as we didn't make it there until about 45 minutes before closing.

Denise did some genealogy while Laura and I examined the inside of our eyelids.  Denise will not rest until she knows everything there is to know about the Bairnsons.  They are the Shetland family to whom we are related through Denise's grandmother, who she called Nan.  Although we have learned in Shetland when related to one family, you are related to all the other families.  Even our tour guide from yesterday, Jolene, is a distant relation.  The person we rented our car from is Jolene's dad, so another distant relation. It involves being several times removed and great-great-great-great grandparents.  Denise would know better.

I am seriously enjoying the seriousness with which Shetlanders take their sweets.  Even the brand new coffee shop below us, Blyde Welcome, offers a number of highly delectable treats.  In particular, I enjoy their "Millionaire Cupcake" which is not a cupcake, and the ladies enjoy their custard creams, which are not really filled with custard but some icing sugar like cream.  Denise compares it to hard sauce we have at Christmas.  Misnomers of treats aside, they are very yummy.

Laura hunted and gathered more meals at the Island Larder and the ladies learned something amazing today.  Apparently, the Island Larder used to be called the The Shetland Fudge Company.  They changed their name when they expanded to having more food, but they still make all the fudge in house on the fourth floor.

Today's picture is the outside of Laura's window.  For those of you who do not know, Laura knits.  The shop in the picture, as Jolene called it yesterday, is the Mecca for knitters in Shetland.  Laura has yet to have the appropriate amount of time to dedicate going through every nook and cranny of the shop.  Shetland has a long, long, long, history of amazing knitwear and wool production.  Last time we were here, we had a tour of the Jamieson's plant, but they don't allow outsiders in anymore, much to Laura's chagrin.

Tomorrow, Laura gets to meet her sixth cousin, as we're meeting Helena Mackay for coffee at The Dowry.  We will need to be bright-eyed and bushy-tailed for that meeting!  The Dowry is so popular, Helena had to book table just so we could have coffee.

Day 5: In which we actually leave Lerwick

 Today was the first day where we all felt almost normal when we got up.  Considering our previous state was sleep-monster-mcgrouch-extraordinaire, we found this quite an improvement.

I gave up on the coffee in our flat and gave Laura money to go downstairs to the Blyde Welcome to get the good stuff.  It was an arduous journey of twelve steps and four metres to the front door of "our" coffee shop.  Yet both Laura and Denise managed it and even found a healthy salad for lunch. Breakfast was had with good coffee.

At 1pm we met Jolene Garriock, by met, I meant we walked out the front door and there she was.  We had arranged for Jolene to take us around a part of the Mainland Denise and I only briefly saw last time, the area around Scalloway.  Scalloway was the ancient capital of Shetland before they moved it to Lerwick.

We exited Lerwick via the North route, which quickly becomes quite a scenic drive.  We weren't long before we came to the Shetland Forest.  This is the only place in Shetland where there are actually more than a couple of trees, and none of them are scraggly-looking.  See below:

 

Next was a familiar trip around the Weisdale Voe, which Denise and I drove around frequently last time we were in Shetland.  Jolene took us through Tingwall, which is where the vikings, when they still owned Shetland, held their parliament, also known as "Thing."  We saw the specific island where it was held, and, of course, Laura and Denise had to get out to read all the signage.

As is evident in this picture, it was breezy.

There were many great views and, I would guess, 1000000 organic lawn mowers.  The people here call them sheep.  Much to Laura's disappointment, on the way to Scalloway we only saw two Shetland ponies.

We continued our drive to Scalloway and toured through the town, seeing the various areas as it is a rather spread out.  Afterward, we went to the Scalloway Museum.  It's a small museum but very interesting as it has great exhibits on the area, and a huge display on the Shetland Bus.  For those of you who do not know what the Shetland Bus is, it was a coordinated effort (which started with individual fishing boats) to support the resistance in Norway after the Nazis invaded.  There are a number of books on the topic, one of which we picked up for the family's WWII expert, Kevin.  As he doesn't read this blog, it's safe to say that here.

Considering how little the boats were, I was impressed with the bravery and how much the people of Shetland and Norway were able to accomplish.

Next, Jolene bought us tea, coffee, and sweets at the museum's coffee shop where Laura was given the greatest gift of this tour: two Shetland ponies right behind the museum. 

 

She took a video of one scratching its butt on the fence.  She's very sure it's the greatest video she's ever filmed.

Purchases were made at the gift shop: some books, a Shetland flag, and more postcards, which people who asked for them can expect to arrive.  

After the museum closed, we drove onto the islands of Tronda and West Burra to see the village of Hamnavoe.  That's where there are artists and they make the Burra Bears: which is making teddy bears from old Shetland and Fair Isle knitting.  Laura would buy one but they are ridiculously expensive.  As they're hand-crafted though, they're worth it to those who can afford them.

Denise and I picked out old croft houses we'd like to fix up, if we ever win the lottery.

I have to add that Jolene was a wonderful tour guide.  She had lots of local knowledge, and can handle the one-lane roads like a pro.  Laura is still convinced everyone in Shetland drives like they're in a Formula 1 race in downtown Toronto.  Jolene tried her best to make Laura feel better about it, and succeeded slightly.  On the drive back, she took us past the new library and where the Shetland Family History Society is now located, which is above and beyond.

Jolene had us back to our door at 5pm sharp, and dinner was more of the food from the Island Larder, then onto typing up my blog to keep up to date on this trip.

For the record, by the end of the tour, Laura saw 11 Shetland ponies.

Day 4

 I do not intend to be repetitive but the day started off very slowly as jet lag has been quite an issue.  After breakfast there was the traditional hunting and gathering of food, so back to the Island Larder for more meals I can eat.  This is quite difficult, as most who know me understand.

After the Island Larder let us run across the street with their in-store baskets, we were off the the Shetland Times Bookshop.  Laura and Denise were in their glory, going through each section (even the cards where they picked out one for Betsy).  Laura made some purchases as did Denise.  Expect some postcards that came from there, everyone!

We went back to the Blyde Welcome, the coffee shop right beneath our flat, and chatted with the staff.  They train people there to work in hospitality as well as serve excellent coffee.  We got some sweets for tea and sweets that afternoon (and decided we have to try all the shortbread available on "Da Street"). 

Resting occurred for the rest of the afternoon as jet lag is a terrible, terrible curse of travel.  It also decided to rain on us.  Of course, we still have an excellent view.  Below is the one from my bedroom window.  We can see the ferry to Bressay from our room.

Day 3: In Which We Got Up Early for a Breakfast Reservation

 We had decided to go to the  Fjara Cafe as that is a site of one of the Shetland webcam locations.  We were seated with a nice view of the Lerwick harbour entrance.  Spectacular.  This writer enjoyed just observing as this provided a different perspective.  We had a wonderful breakfast and the restaurant lived up to its reputation of very good food.   

We returned to our flat all full and a bit sleepy so that is what happened.  Laura had to go and "hunt and gather" dinner as we were so tired that even heating dinner was too onerous a task.  So off Laura and Denise went to the Fort Cafe, a place Denise and I ate at a few times the last time we were in Shetland. The time change is still causing us difficulty.  I will not admit that being a bit older has anything to do with it. 😃 Hoping for a better day tomorrow.

Day 2 Continued

This day was a day of reconnaissance as we needed to get some easily reheated and prepared stuffs.  Turned out that was an easy chore as a store across the street from our front door was The Island Larder which had a great selection of what we like.  Fortunately, the store is literally across the street from where we are staying.

 Laura hunted and gathered the food, cheese, chocolate.  Job done!  As we were still having difficulty adjusting  to the time change we heated dinner and it was as good as it looked.  Later to bed and day done.

A start to Shetland 2023

 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."