I’m reminded of the Ted Lasso scene where Ted asks, “how many countries are there in this country?” and Coach replies “Four.” I’ve now set foot in three of the four counties: England (the first time was 2007), Northern Ireland (2022) and now Scotland. (I’m hoping to spend a day in Wales next week.)
Lerwick (treat the W as silent — Lurr-ick) is in the Shetland Islands which are the northernmost part of the United Kingdom, being about 110mi/170km north of mainland Scotland and about 140mi/220km west of Norway, at about N60/W1. As we get both further south and further from solstice, sunrise today was about 4:30am and sunset about 10pm, meaning that there is something resembling darkness overnight.
We’ve been really spoiled this trip with gorgeous fjords (in Norway, Iceland, Greenland and Faroe Islands), impressive waterfalls (same places), beautiful flora and fauna, and absolutely incredible geology. I’m fascinated by the arctic, so visiting those locations has been a treat!
Lerwick is a lovely seaside community with about 7000 residents. It’s got some topography: green hills, sharp cliffs that lead to the ocean, lots of very old rock walls including some with mortar and some without, and many gray stone buildings. There’s a lovely coastline.
Not to take anything away from Lerwick, but its geology was not nearly as unique. It looks a lot like the way the Yorkshire Dales are pictured and described in All Creatures Great and Small — lots of very green hills (but not nearly as steep as we’ve seen elsewhere). By regular standards, it would be described as rugged. It was pretty, though not stunning.
We didn’t have an excursion planned, so we walked around the city. First we had to go through immigration on the ship….fortunately we were assigned an early time so we were able to get ashore quickly. We were greeted by a rainbow.
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Then we walked, quickly, to a geocaching event. We arrived about 3 minutes after the event officially ended, but that turned out to be good enough. Then we — I hope you’re sitting down as you read this — decided to let geocaching be our tour guide. We walked along the water, then in town then did the “coastal walk” which is just what it sounds like. We saw stone buildings, stone walls, nice views of the water, and a golf course.
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Then two intrepid cachers went for an even longer walk while three of us went to Clickimin Broch which, as the sign says, “was probably built between 2,400 and 2,100 years ago for a powerful local ruler.” It was an interesting round building, with some very low “doorways” that were probably only about 4 feet tall — I had to take my backpack off and bend almost 90 degrees at the waist to get through them.
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Near Clickiman Broch we also saw a Shetland pony.
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We decided to stop at the local grocery store to get a picnic lunch. For £4 (about $5.40US) we were able to get a 3-course meal: a main, a snack and a drink. We found a nice bench and enjoyed the lapping of the waves as we fortified ourselves for an uphill walk to the next cache.
It was very nice to see lots of dogs of various shapes and sizes walking their owners.
There were some quirky sights. A bench area that appeared to be four rowboats (where we did not each lunch). Some interesting doors and gates. A “book bench” with puffins.
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All in all, a very pleasant day in a nice town.
As I approached the entry to the ship, a very nice local volunteer asked if I’d enjoyed myself and I assured her I had. She asked what I’d done and I showed her my geocaching map and outlined where we’d walked. She seemed (or at least pretended to be) impressed, and said, “good on ya.”
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