Tracy-Shane-Trips

When I woke up this morning around 7 a.m., we were still underway. We didn’t get to Ullapool until noon. It was a long way from Belfast. Belfast at the bottom blue marker and Ullapool at the top.

When we did get closer, here’s what I saw. My goodness, Scotland is so beautiful. This part of the trip is my bucket list part. It was mizzling today (drizzling) and overcast with peeks of sun every now and then. A very chilly 59F.

Today was Ullapool; tomorrow, Orkney; then Edinburgh, Aberdeen, and Lerwick, Shetland Islands. Have you seen the TV show Shetland? Shetland is a hit BBC crime drama set and filmed in the Shetland Islands, with the archipelago’s capital, Lerwick, serving as its primary backdrop. I watched a few seasons and really liked it. I am looking forward to exploring the town.

So we went ashore around 2pm, and the first thing we heard was the bagpipes. After years of working with the Virginia Scottish Games Assn when I was in VA, the sound was really beautiful. There’s our ship in the background. The piper agreed to take a photo with Shane.

We walked around town a bit, and there were many cool shops and cafes. We stopped for lunch at the Cult Cafe and had sausage rolls. Very delicious.

Then we went shopping. We got some gifts for ourselves and for friends. Mom, I got you something, but I didn’t take a photo, so it would be a surprise. That’s a Fraser tartan, which is the clan to which the Simpsons are most closely related. A plushy Highland Coo for me and some personalized balls for the fuzzy brothers. They had Murphy but not Atlas. A gorgeous handmade ceramic cup for drinking scotch (I’m sure we will get a bottle while we’re in either Aberdeen or Edinburgh).

We got some beautiful, hand-dyed yarn for Cindy. She says she is going to probably make a scarf hoodie. I can’t wait to see how it turns out.

We hung around for about 2 hours, and as we walked back to the port, I took a few photos of the town. It was a quiet day and so picturesque.

Back on the ship and a light dinner at 630pm. Nothing special to say about the food much anymore. The buffet is delicious. I had steamed shrimp and crab, pumpkin and coconut soup, which was very smooth and pretty tasty. Shane had steak and a slice of pizza (what a funny combination). Shane’s been sleeping a lot and feeling a little under the weather, but he’s been a trooper. We made it a short, quiet day today, only about 2.5 hours off the ship.

Just returned from the single malt scotch tasting where we tried 4 different scotches. It was a blind tasting and of course I liked the Macallun the best. I sat next to a man who was the on-board scholar-atronomer who is giving a lecture Saturday on the stars above us in this part of the world during the cruise. Fascinating and I will definitely attend.

Shane and I did some brainstorming tonite about Stockholm, where we’ll be at the end of our trip. We sent a bunch of Linkedin messages before we left but didn’t get any responses at all. So we send another few tonite, to Mojang, the people who make Minecraft. They have an office in Stockholm. Shane said he’d write another company-specific paragraph tomorrow. We’re trying to convince a game designer from one of the companies to meet with him. I’m offering lunch as an incentive.

Tomorrow is Orkney at 930am for 3.5 hours so we’ll be finished by 1ish. We’ll get a chance to visit the town and walk around a little and then it’s back on the ship by 4 so we can get an early start for Edinburgh. It’s 213 nautical miles from Orkney.

It’s stormy seas tonite and I can actually feel the boat rocking a little. I took a dramamine just to be safe. It’s really cloudy out there and about 930pm here, so I’m going to read for a while and then close my eyes. Let’s all hope for sun and calm waters tomorrow. Tracy