Leaving my car behind in Wales was undoubtedly a wise move. I have thoroughly explored a relatively small area on foot, and have seen far more than you ever do when rushing around in a metal box on wheels. I have even managed some days off in Lerwick, the main town, population 7,500. (Compared with Abergele & Pensarn, pop. 10,00, or Llandudno + Penrhyn Bay, pop. 20,000. Thank you Wikipedia.) Lerwick is an hour’s bus ride away, and the journey involves a lot of zig-zagging through little settlements on either side of the main road. The place names sound very Viking – Exnaboe, Fladdabister, Aithsetter. The view from the bus window is superb, looking precipitously down into rocky bays. The bus drivers are generally cheerful, and full of useful information. And the buses run to time.
I have become accustomed to the mile-and-a-bit walk to the bus stop at Sumburgh, and even look forward to the way back, taking the cliff top path as a treat. Or going the long way round via Grutness Harbour.
Lerwick has an excellent new museum and gallery, with a brilliant café – great coffee and a view over the harbour. It also has exhibitions: currently “A Shetland Series – Banks and Skerries” drawings, photographs and three dimensional objects by Gemma Graham, who was born in Shetland and has recently returned home. Her drawings are in black ink on paper, detailed in execution and hypnotic in effect.
What Lerwick does not have is a major shopping centre. Or rather, it doesn’t have a mall full of chain stores. It has a perfectly serviceable shopping centre down on the docks, with local produce for sale. The high street has some very nice independent retailers, including a proper bookshop and a music shop, but sadly also has empty shops and some rather run down premises. But if you look, you can find almost anything you might want, all within a breath of the sea. I have been very good, and kept out of the chocolatier’s. But perhaps I might succumb tomorrow, when the idyll ends and I have to take the ferry back to the mainland.
