Shapshots around Shetland

So many "oh wow" moments - our adventures continue:

This is Shetland - there are sheep. Lots of sheep. Mostly dirty white sheep, but some black-faced or all black. This time of year, their fleeces are long and they look like big puff balls on stick legs. They also have extremely expressive faces. 

We get a lot of weather variety in Minnesota, but nothing like Shetland. In one day, we saw EIGHT rainbows, which tells you how many times we cycled between sun, rain, clouds, sun, rain, clouds, etc. 

Coming back to Sarah's place in Lerwick felt like coming home - it's our third visit. This is the view out the living room window. I love being able to peer out at the passing ships in the harbor. 

St. Ninians Beach is a tombolo, a sandy isthmus with water on both sides. Last winter, we arrived during such a high tide that the tombolo was completely covered, which was unusual, but this time it was just passable. 

So we walked across the tombolo and across the island. It turned out on the other side, there are dramatic cliffs. Gorgeous.

The ferry docks just down the road, so we often run down to see it getting ready to depart each evening. 

Along with lots of sheep, Shetland has lots of wool shops, including this one on our street. I'm hoping to bring back wool so Micah can make me a "Shetland" sweater.

Our first visit to Victoria Pier this year, basking in the sun.

And a visit to the Lodberries, Jimmy's house in the Shetland TV show. The water is gorgeous and clear - but too cold for me to wade this year!

I took my bike out this morning and biked along this coastal path. 

A common practice in Shetland is to use old boats to roof sheds or garages. Use what you've got, right? 

On an almost-treeless island, people build in stone. And stone lasts. Today we visited Jarlshof, a historic site where various people have lived for almost 5,000 years in various different shapes and sizes of dwellings, all constructed with stone walls. Jarlshof from Above (Youtube: 4 minutes) 

Later we went to the historic Querndale water mill, which was closed but still interesting. 

This "bod" is a simple dwelling where folks can stay (in the summer),

right next to the picturesque Spiggie Beach. 

Norik Up Helly Aa

 Up Helly Aa is the Viking fire festival celebrated in Shetland every winter. The big festival is in Lerwick at the end of January, and we watched it online. It's very dramatic. But very crowded. 

There are also another 12 smaller Up Helly Aa events. Last year, we went to parts of two of them, and it was really fun. They're very much community events, with the participants working for months to prepare, and touring the schools and care centers before the festival to show off their costumes. 

This year, we happened to be in Unst for the Norik Up Helly Aa, and our airbnb host kindly got us tickets to go to the hall afterwards (the rest is free). Seeing the whole thing was amazing. 

Saturday morning we stopped by the Norwick beach where the burning would occur. It is a spectacularly beautiful beach. 

At this event, they don't actually burn the beautiful galley (boat) every year. They burn a simple boat (see above) atop a huge bonfire, right above the beach. Everything was in readiness. 

A closeup view of the galley that will be burned. 

Then we headed over to the hall to "meet" the Vikings. 

And to see the official boat, with it's annual name - Nordrljos. Each year, the Jarl picks a name from history for himself and for his boat. He also leads the Jarl squad. 

That evening, we drove back down the single track road that ended at the beach. We went really early so we could get a parking place. It just didn't seem like there would be room for very many cars, and mom can't walk long distances in the dark. 

We got an amazing parking spot. Later, they parked up a LOT more cars, but we were still glad to have gotten there early. We bundled up and waited awhile as other folks arrived and the procession mustered. 

It was an incredibly beautiful night, with the full moon shining on the ocean. 

The jarl squad, followed by all the other guizer squads (groups dressed up "in disguise") walked up the hill so they could dramatically light their torches and walk back down to the beach. It was a beautiful sight, again reflected in the water below. 

The processed down to the galley and the pile of pallets and ceremonially threw their torches to start the bonfire. Amazingly, Up Helly Aa has a really good safety track record, even though it involves a LOT of naked flame!

Once this bonfire got going - it was REALLY hot! 

Then all the cars moved out in an orderly fashion along the single track road (that means there's only one lane for both directions, with small passing places when cars in opposing directions pass) to the North Unst hall. 

Almost the entire community showed up to celebrate. Each squad (there were 12 this time) did skits, starting with the Jarl squad. 

The skits were silly or fun or filled with in jokes. This one was a riff on the Barbie movie and was pretty amusing. Our host was in it too! 

And that's Up Helly Aa. The celebration at the hall went on until the wee hours, but we got tired and went home to bed, but it was an honor to be included in this little vibrant communities celebration. 

Unst

Our next trick was to get from Falkirk to Unst. We drove north to Aberdeen, stopping at Stonehaven beach on the way, took the overnight ferry to Shetland, then drove and took two more inter-island ferries to reach the most northerly place in the UK. 

Stonehaven is a cute little town south of Aberdeen, home of an open air swimming pool. It's also part of string of beaches along this coast who vied for the title of "Sunniest Beach in Scotland". It wasn't actually sunny - or warm - when we were there, but still a lovely, windswept, chilly beach. 

When I say "ferry" - you might think of a passenger ferry, or a larger ro-ro (roll on, roll off) car ferry. The Northlink ferry has room for 600 passengers and maybe 100 cars or trucks. There are two ferries that trade off going north and south. We were on the Hjatland for this trip. 

This was our first time driving into the ferry with a car. It was kind of terrifying to drive into this huge maw, then drive down a narrow ramp to a lower deck to wedge our precious rental car in with maybe 15 other cars for the crossing. All of the trucks stayed on the upper deck. 

Then we climbed three flights of stairs to get to the passenger deck, and down the hall to find our cabins. 

These beds might look narrow and simple, but it was incredibly cozy to curl up in our duvets and sleep through most of the (somewhat rough) crossing. 

There's a restaurant on board, and I always order the jacket potato, a large hot plain baked potato. I get seasick, so I have to be gentle on my stomach. But they ferry doesn't care if you bring food on board, so we elevated the simple potato into a lovely meal with our own mature cheddar cheese, local butter, new greens, and salad dressing. 

Here's a view out the back of the ferry, still in the Aberdeen harbor, at sunset. 

And here I am as we leave the harbor. Unfortunately, the only outside deck that was open was the back dog/smoking deck, so we only get view behind. 

On arrival at 7:30 am the next morning, I drove off the boat and left mom to walk off as a passenger to avoid those three flights of stairs! 

After a stop at Tesco and the bank, we headed across the "mainland" of Shetland to our first inter-island ferry. 

I had cell service so we could see how close we were getting to the other side, but it also looks like we're flying across the water!

On the second ferry, we got stuck behind a huge truck. Fortunately, all of the vehicles stayed put. 

And finally - we made it to Unst

And checked into our new airbnb. It looks small, but it's like the Tardis - much larger on the inside than you'd think. Three bedrooms, one fully accessible, plus the little porch that got really warm when it was sunny. 

Edinburgh

No one can go to Scotland without going to Edinburgh - or so I've been told many times. And yet, it's taken until my fourth visit to Scotland to make it to this iconic destination. 

Driving in old towns is not fun, so we decided to take the train from Falkirk. That left us with 1/2 mile walk from our flat to the station and then a quick 1/2 hour ride into the city. 

Scotrail train arriving in Falkirk

Building across from Edinburgh Waverly main train station.

Old buildings reflected in a window.

The Royal Mile runs through the heart of Edinburgh’s Old Town, connecting  Edinburgh Castle, perched high on a base of volcanic rock, with the Palace of Holyroodhouse

All visits to Edinburgh need bagpipers, right?

And some armor.

Tenements towering over cobble streets.

And finally the castle, towering over all of it. 

Finding gluten-free food is sometimes a challenge ....

but this time led us to some of the best and most unique crepes I've ever had.