Saturday, July 20

Today was one of the few days of this trip that we actually had to do something. We got our butts out of bed at 6:30, out of the door by 8:00, all to get to Aberdeen Airport (120 miles away) for a 12:15 flight to the Shetlands. We woke to fog. We weren't sure if that was normal for this time of day or not. We usually get out of bed at 8:00 or 8:30. Turns out that the fog was hanging in the valley where we were. Once on the road and climbing out of the valley, we found sunshine. But, as we headed north toward Dundee and then Aberdeen, it  got foggy and overcast. The weather didn't affect my driving and we were at the airport Avis rental car office by 10:30. There were 4 people in line in front of me and everyone of them had a problem and gave the poor girl behind the counter a hard time. One guy even took her picture without her permission. I got a smile when I stepped up and said I didn't have any problems and all I wanted was to give her the keys.

Our flight was delayed for an  hour and a half for Lord knows what. I  don't think it was weather, but nobody was talking. We finally walked out on the tarmac and boarded a 36 passenger turbo prop made by Saab. It took a while for us to actually take off, but once cleared we were in Lerwick in about an  hour. The approach was in the fog until the last 200 feet. You come out of the dense fog and hit the runway. Our pilot's first name was Jimmy. When was the last time you had a pilot named Jimmy? I saw him in the coffee shop at the terminal, joking around with a buddy and a female. He looked like a young kid who could get into a lot of trouble. Boy, are we getting  old.

Once inside the Lerwick terminal, our bags were already there. We turn around and notice one of those guys who stands in airline terminals with people's name signs. I ask him why he has our name and he says he is there to pick us up to  take us to our rental car. Wow!! I was impressed. Concierge service.

Less than an hour later we were in the Alder House B&B and checked in with Karen, the cousin of my sister's friend. We passed it twice and I got to practice my U-turns with a right-hand drive car. Karen is nice and showed us our room and told us about breakfast and what else they had here.

We brought up the suitcases - up the stairs, no lift. We have one large suitcase that weighs almost 50 pounds - you can't check a bag over 50 pounds onto a plane with paying extra. Linda grabs one end and I take the other end and up we go the  winding staircase. This is usually the European way. We unpack, sit around and review our brochures to decide what we want to do. We checkout the WiFi  to make sure the iPhone and the computer can get connected. All successful. We're about ready to leave to find a restaurant when I find an episode of Top Gear on the TV which delays us for 45 minutes.

Once on the street we find the center of town and start looking for restaurants. The first two have the same answer - if you have not booked, you don't have a chance.  We're just not used to booking regular restaurants. Eventually, we find an Asian restaurant (the Golden Coach) that tells us it will be a 30 minute wait, but seat us within 5 minutes. After eating mainly Brit food for 4 weeks, it was great to get some rice and pork and fish and vegetables. They had an interesting menu divided into Chinese, Korean, Thai, and Malay sections. Even though there were some kids in the dining room, they behaved and we had a really nice meal. I had two vodkas and Linda had a Morgan's whisky to try. Really good. We need to see if we can get that in the States.

We walked back to the  B&B a different way and settled in for the night.