Yesterday was a strange day, cruise-wise. We visited the town of Lerwick in the Shetland Islands. Let me describe what happened. About three days ago (when we were in Edinburgh), we received a notification that our 2.5-hour shore excursion to tour the island and stop to see Shetland ponies had been cut to one hour due to a shortage of buses in Lerwick. It became a one-hour panoramic tour on a “luxury motor coach.”

We were okay with that because, having been to Lerwick before, we knew that it was an easy town to walk around in, and if they were still taking us to the Shetland ponies, we would be happy. We had done a private tour the last time we were here and saw most of the island. Later, we heard from some crew that the reason there were so few buses was that there would be four ships in. That’s a lot of ships for tiny Lerwick.

Then, early yesterday morning (around 7:30), there was a general announcement that they not only made in the ship’s public areas but into staterooms as well. You know that is highly unusual if you are a regular Viking cruiser. It is usually only used for emergency announcements. The cruise director (a very fine fellow) came on and told us that our schedule had changed and that Venus was now docked at the pier but would not be moored there all day. We would only be there until noon. After that, we would move to the center of the harbor and use tenders to return to the ship. Until then, the morning shore excursions would leave from the pier, and there would be a shuttle bus that would go into the town until 11:00 a.m. After that, if you were in town, you would have to wait until 1:00 p.m. to take a tender back to the ship.

We thought, “WOW! There must be another ship coming to take our place. They must be really important to be able to kick us off the dock. And sure enough, when we went up for breakfast and could see the other side of the harbor, there was a ship anchored there, tendering passengers into the center of the town. But imagine our surprise when we discovered the other ship was the Viking Sky (thus, the photo above). The problems with coaches, piers, and docks were caused by Viking scheduling two of their ships here on the same day. And yes, there were two other ships in the harbor, both docked, but they were small Ponant ships (a French cruise line) with less than 200 passengers, so they docked at piers that neither Viking ship could fit on.

It was just weird. It became even stranger when, later in the day, our ship (Viking Venus) moved off the pier, and Viking Sky didn’t move; they just kept on tendering. When we left yesterday afternoon, there was no one on the pier and never had been. It was just strange.

What about our day? It was pretty good. The weather cooperated (not bright and sunny, but no rain), the tour was nice, if short, and our guide was a good one. We were toured through the town and then up into the hills, where we stopped by Carol’s Ponies, a Shetland pony ranch where we could get off and take photos of them. Which, of course, I did. I don’t like to put people (other than those I know) into my photos, so when we go someplace like this where there are about 25 yards of fence for four busloads of people to stand next to, it can be very tough to take photos of just what I want to take pictures of…like ponies…or stones…or pretty much anything. But I did my best. Here are the results. I think the only person I got in the photos was my lovely bride Kathleen. Don’t forget; if you click the first shot, you can scroll through with your arrow keys or by swiping. And PLEASE…don’t look at my photography on a phone. Please…

After the ponies, we headed back to the ship (remember, the excursion had been shortened to an hour). When back, Kathleen headed up to our stateroom and Steve and Jamie went off to town on the shuttle bus. I walked Kathleen back to our room to get my heavier sweatshirt because the wind was blowing so hard that my windbreaker was not breaking. Then I went back down to the shuttle and took the last one into downtown Lerwick.

As I mentioned, we had been there before, and it is a photogenic town. Lots of color and history to shoot. Plus, one of our favorite British TV shows is Shetland, which is…you’ll never guess…shot here in Shetland. In fact we drove by the show setting up shots for next season. And I love to take photos of places we have seen in TV and movies. Remember, we just did a Ted Lasso tour. I probably walked around Lerwick for an hour or so before I got in line for the first tender back on the ship to meet everyone for lunch. In the meantime, Venus had moved around, Sky and the two Ponant ships were right where we had left them, and we were back on board for an early sail-away. We were only staying until 3:00 p.m. because we now need the full  57 hours of sailing time to get to our next port…Honningsvåg, Norway.

Here are my photos from my walk around the town. You know the drill… (is that better?)

Lastly, on the way out of port at 3:00 p.m. I shot a few last shots as a farewell. We were thrilled to come back here but doubt it could happen again. In case you missed it, there were two blog posts today. That’s because it’s a sea day…in the North Sea. More about that tomorrow, but suffice it to say we are having some ROUGH seas. No fun for many people (not us; Kathleen has her SeaBand, and I never get seasick—this is not the case for the majority of the ship—barf bags are everywhere.)

Life is like Sanskrit read to a pony.  —Lou Reed