Tuesday June 3rd

Today we had a bus trip arranged that took us from Lerwick down the east coast of Mainland (the largest island in Shetland) to the southernmost point then back up the west coast. 

First stop was Hoswick where there were two craft shops selling knitwear and a visitor centre and museum.  It is interesting that everyone seems to pronounce Lerwick as Ler-wick but Hoswick is Hus-ik.  I asked a local and she explained that they all call Lerwick “Leric” but when people are speaking “proper” they pronounce the “w”.  

Back on the bus and down to Jarlshof where remains of a village have been excavated. On the way in there were three Shetland ponies, one with a goal who was very cute. I had wanted to get a photo of a Shetland in its native land so grabbed the opportunity.

A bit of trivia for you, although Shetland ponies and Shetland sheep do come from Shetland, the Shetland sheepdog (which looks like a miniature collie) has nothing to do with Shetland.  They use mostly border collies here and when I asked our guide about the Shetland sheep dog he claimed that the dog was a cause of embarrassment to the people of Shetland because they considered it useless. 

Some parts of the village are very similar to Scara Brae in Orkney, 

but the Shetland village has evidence of buildings from several different ages – late Neolithic houses, a Bronze Age village, houses from the Iron Age, Norse long houses 

A medieval farm house and a 16th century baronial mansion were represented in the one site.  

I am used to coming across level crossings on roads in Australia with warnings to "look out for trains" but in Shetland you have to look out for planes as the road crosses the main runway of their main airport.

Our guide was very knowledgeable, giving us information on a wide range to topics including the islanders views on independence, the economy of the islands, employment, education, as well as history and the sights.  I won't put all I learned here, but if you are interested, ask me.

This afternoon we were to have had more zodiac trips to visit bird cliffs on Noss island but the wind was up above 60 km/hr and the swell about 3 m so they were cancelled and we had to make do with viewing from the outer decks of the ship. Still quite spectacular. 

Enlarge the photo below to check out all the birds.

I think it will be a roughish crossing tonight if the weather now is anything to go on.  We have the Captain's Cocktail Party tonight and we arrive in Bergen tomorrow about lunchtime. We must have some sort of excursion arranged for the afternoon and we remain on the ship tomorrow night, disembarking on Thursday morning after breakfast.