Lerwick; Friday, 05 August, 2005

My trip actually started the previous evening when I took advantage of BA's on-line check-in and boarding card printing. After choosing my seats (front row on each flight) and printing by London to Aberdeen boarding card I realised that I didn't therefore have to get up at quite such a ridiculous hour to get to the airport as I could drop my bags and sail through to the gate.

The only down-side was that I did then have a two hour wait in Aberdeen with nothing to do other than read my book and drink coffee!

After landing at Sumburgh and getting the bus into Lerwick. According to the guidebooks and local publicity the service is frequent, which compared to some of the other services is true (it runs everyday for a start), compared to bus services elsewhere in the country though I wouldn't call once every couple of hours, but at random intervals, frequent!

After checking in to the hotel I wandered down to the Tourist Information centre to pick up some leaflets on things to do and then went for a walk around the coast that surrounds Lerwick.

About halfway round the walk is one of the many Archaeological sights that Shetland is rich in. Clickimin Broch is a former bronze age farm settlement which was upgraded into an Iron age fort and lasted well into the first millennium before being abandoned.

After spending some time looking around that I continued on my walk not realising the time, so by the time I got back to the hotel it was already almost 8pm. I dropped my day-bag off and went out for dinner before returning to the hotel and getting some well earned rest.