I just spent five blissful days on Shetland Island in Scotland. I am exhausted from the travel and covered with bruises (go figure!) from the return trip. Twenty-three hours of walking, bag lugging and waiting. I’ve discovered my travel limits!
Traveling at 78 has its challenges. I had an iPad, iPhone, hearing aid charger, a thousand wires and Power Pack to lug with me. Heaven forbid my hearing aids cut out when i am going through Customs! I charged them when I was supposed to be sleeping on the night flight over. “What?” will only get you so far!
Scotland was brilliant. The people are polite and kind. Two teenagers leaped to their feet to give me their seats on the airport transit. “For me?” I asked.
I had great chats with taxi drivers, although one let me and my bag and my backpack off 1/2 mile from the terminal (I thought “Wow, these Scots are an athletic lot! No wonder Americans are so heavy.)”. The next driver dropped me off very close by. I was grateful.
The prop plane to Shetland had a tartan plaid tail, Harris tweed headrest covers and the hostess wore a plaid scarf. They gave us Tunnock’s Chocolate Caramel wafer biscuits with our coffee. Delicious! I had forgotten how quiet a prop plane is. It was refreshing after the airbus which sounded like a flying bucket of bolts. We landed at Sumburgh Head then drove north to Lerwick. The sun was shining and the island gorgeous.
The Lerwick Hotel was great. Their food varied and excellent. Their desserts brilliant. They managed gluten free and lactose intolerant requirements well. Their deep bathtubs offered a long soak at day’s end.
I love fiber people. Sixteen strangers arrived in Lerwick and left as friends. We had a Korean woman in our group and two women from the United States. Everyone else was from the UK. We shared meals, stories, photos, field trips and laughter. Our guides and bus drivers were from Shetland. Edna shared where kids used to go to neck. Graham, our driver, put on his Up Helly Aa outfit for us. The weather was unpredictable – bright and sunny one minute, pelting rain the next. In other words, Shetland. We saw seals basking on a beach. Some of us saw Puffins. I saw Skuas and two Curlews.
We visited museums and shops in Lerwick, the Silly Sheep Fiber Co. croft where we had lunch and petted lambs, the Sumburgh Head lighthouse (hold onto your hats folks!) and Scalloway where the Shetland Bus[1] had headquartered. Our guides pointed out sites used in the show Shetland[2] and told us most everyone in Lerwick had been involved in one way or another at some point.
One of the joys of a small community is that everyone seems to know each other and each other’s stories. Graham recommended The 12th Man, a book on the Shetland Bus and told me he went to school with the son of Kaare Iversen, who wrote Shetland Bus Man.
History comes alive in a small community.
.
[1] The Shetland Bus was the name given to those men who sailed between Shetland and Norway during WWII
bringing escapees from the Nazis, planting mines and supplying the resistance with weapons. They were brave men and not all of them survived.
[2] BBC Scotland mystery series based on Anne Cleeves’ books.
A WELL TRAVELED HEART 