HAPPY NEW WEEK and HAPPY FULL MOON! Please check back to last week's thread to view another installment of Lindy's descriptions and mesmerizing photos of her recent cruise. I've enjoyed them so much.
This week, the moon turns full on Tuesday, 14 June. It's the second of four consecutive supermoons, when the full moon of the month occurs as the moon is at or near perigee (its closest point to the Earth in its monthly orbit). If your skies are cloudy, you can watch the full moon rise online. Info is HERE at Space.com, a safe site.
I expect to have a lazy week myself, because Indiana will be part of the massive, record-breaking heat wave that's predicted to hit much of the U.S. My temperatures will be around 100F or 38C for several days, with high humidity. Take care, everyone.
Lerwick.
Solid buildings, made to withstand the bleak winters there. This is the Lifeboat Headquarters.
Funnily enough, most of us who landed that morning wanted to turn left and lean on a wall so as to photograph our own ship!
It looked cold on the water, but it was officially 12 degrees that day! Not too cold if you wore a coat....
The flags were up in the centre of the town, and looked cheerful. EDIT: If you observe the streetlight attached to a building at the top right of the picture, this is one of the cameras which give us the 24 hour webcam from Lerwick!!!!
There were quite a few tourists looking around, and most of them were probably our fellow passengers!
We walked around and admired some neat houses. A few bungalows looked cosy, and some had cute gardens, although one lady (I think) had a rather unhealthy idea of how many pots with faces, and garden gnomes you could fit into a few square feet!
We returned to the centre of the town and searched for a drink. My OH had some really nice coffee, & I enjoyed a creamy hot chocolate in a fudge & icecream shop. Bearing in mind that we had been told how much they had been struggling in the pandemic with no tourists, I bought some fudge for us to take home with us.
I noticed a flash of colour and stopped. In a garden doorway, I found a hidden yard filled with boisterous tulips. They reminded me of the same ones seen recently in Norway.
Our ship again, with something in the foreground. We spoke to a local man, very friendly, who saw us looking at it, and he told us that it was a half sized model perfect in every way, of a Viking ship. Built by a local guy who was a Viking enthusiast.
It was all very friendly and you could feel a sense of community. I couldn't walk as far as I would have liked, or we would have explored further. We did see some fierce looking cannons peeking over a wall from the Fort above us, but decided to return to the ship.
Views from the deck of the island opposite (Bressay?)
Soon we were underway again, and would remain at sea until we reached Liverpool on Friday morning. We saw the tender arrive with the Pilot to get on board and guide us out to sea again.
In this, I'm looking down and you can see some people looking out on the decks below us. The tender dropped off the Pilot, then followed us for a few miles, then picked him up again as we left. You can see the cemetery at Lerwick on the headland, behind.
Goodbye.
Last bit of mainland Shetland.
As we left, we could see one of the local "on/off" ferries going between the islands.
That evening, we had our last Formal Night, so we dressed up, and had a delicious meal. The Captain told us over the tannoy that there were special plans in place for tomorrow, as HM the Queens Jubilee would be celebrated.
I saw the sun come up as I got up in the night.
I took several pictures of it. Sadly, I got up again. And again. I had eaten something which disagreed with me....
By morning I had to stay in bed and just drink water. I sent my OH down to breakfast with instructions to just bring me a dry roll. I suspect that it might have been a bunch of grapes we were given, as there was a bowl of fruit in our cabin and I had scoffed a few whilst getting hungry for my dinner. Later, I slept it off and sent my OH to look for some coffee and company in one of the lounges.
We were due a final day at sea, with some frolics (Corgi racing!) and celebratory flags everywhere. I missed it all, plus a special British Menu Night in the restaurant and a sing along to Rule Britannia. I got out the suitcases and packed.
In the evening, I dressed and put on my Union Jack earrings to go to the buffet restaurant where I could sit quietly in a corner and slurp some soup. We cornered our usual waiters and gave them some tips, then went to bed early.
Friday 3rd June.
Next morning, we awoke just in time to see our arrival back in Liverpool. It was grey and damp (forecast, "Overcast with rain, temp 12 degrees")
We had an early breakfast and were some of the first to leave the ship. A coach took us back to the big car park where we'd left our car, and we were also reunited with our luggage (2 suitcases and a bag full of shoes and guidebooks!)
View of the famous Liver Buildings as we waited on the coach.
We took a deep breath, and headed out of the city. My OH took us on a slight detour to see the town where I had lived before our marriage. It was changed, of course, and it seemed strange to see it again. We stopped in the road where the house was which my father had so proudly bought, when it was built in 1957. We knew that it had changed hands several times since my parents moved out and that someone who owned it recently, had modernised and extended it. It looked good and I was glad it was still being enjoyed. My parents had put so much love into it in the years we lived there, and I had come out of the front door in my wedding dress, ready for a new adventure on a farm, in 1973. We then drove past the cinema where I had been as a girl (now a restaurant) and some old friends homes. Goodbye!
We got home again late morning and my OH went straight off to collect his beloved dog.