Saturday 04/09/04

Last night, I booked a weekend trip to Shetland by plane. I head out to Sumburgh Airport at around 1pm, to return on Tuesday afternoon. There is a dedicated airport bus, which I join at midday outside St Magnus' Cathedral in Kirkwall. It's a large red minibus, low floor access. It's £2 single and £3 return, the return being valid for a month. On arrival at KW airport, I check in and proceed with my pet-hate: wiating in an airport departure lounge. Finally, well past departure time, we're called to go into the plane. It's turboprop affair with 133 seats and one stewardees. I sit behind the engine/ wing. The doors are closed, the emergency drill rattled off and the propellors start up. Finally, they begin to buzz like a swarm of angry wasps and we move off the stand an donto the runway. The buzz rises to a crescendo on take-off. We rise above Orkney Mainland and head northeast. I sit on the righthand side of the plane and am therefore deprived of the view over the North Isles. In only see Fair Isle from 6,000 feet up. At length, we commence the descent. Prior to departure, we were issued with weather letters by Loganair. These are a notification that weather conditions at Sumburgh may make landing impossible and that the flight stands to be delayed or cancelled. By the time we reach Sumburgh, the fog has lifted. We descended to very low over the sea, then the runway appeared and the plane slowed, landed and went right up to the terminal building. With the time at 3pm, I marched up to the busstop, only to find that the next bus into Lerwick won't be until 5.30. I return to the terminal, buy some info and decide to shell out on a taxi: £32! However, I need to be in Lerwick before the TIC closes. I did not book accommodation in advance. The taxi driver takes me up the A970 to Shetland's capital. He tells me all manner of stories of local interest. At Cunningsburgh, the hills are bare rock, stripped of their layer of peat last year. A period of drought had dried out the peat, which was duly washed down the hill in a torrential downpour. The road went as well. Finally arrive into Lerwick at 4pm. I'm dropped off outside the TIC in Market Cross, in the middle of the town. Join the Q to book accommodation. I am referred to Fort Charlotte Guesthouse, on Charlotte Street, further up the town. I also book a guided tour for tomorrow, Sunday, which will take me round Mainland Shetland. After a stint on the Internet at the TIC, I go to Charlotte Street. Have to walk the length fo Commercial Street. This is the main commercial centre, paved with slabs and open to all traffic. I'm met at 1 Charlotte Street by proprietor Jim, who shows me to my room, no 5, on the topfloor. Small but comfortable room. Jim owns a fish & chips shop where I go to have my supper a bit later. Proceed on a walk round the town, to Fort Charlotte. This is a Territorial Army base. Return along the seafront, where some Scandinavian style buildings line the haroubr. Shetland considers itself to be more Viking than Scots, and Lerwick looks faintly Scandinavian. There are no highrise buildings. Have a portion of fish & chips at Jim's shop, which I consum on a bench by the harbour. Then I head out along Commercial Street, past the Market Cross and up the hill. Walk round the peninsula of the Knab, past Breiwick and the local cemetery. Nice views over the outlying housing estates of Lerwick, and south along the ocast. The return takes me high above the sound bdetween Lerwick and the island of Bressay. I head down the hill through another housing estate and reappear in Commercial Street. On return to Charlotte Street, I spend the rest of the evening watching telly.