We’ve been travelling again, dear friends – at last, after 3 years interrupted by Coronavirus and lockdowns, we went to Scotland again (you can read all about our previous Scotland trip here: https://romanceloversite.com/2019/07/24/our-magical-trip-to-scotland-part-1-edinburgh/) ; a trip we’d long been planning, to the Northern Islands, Orkney and Shetland. And we’ve got LOTS of photos for you: picturesque towns and ports…
… beautiful, untouched nature…
… and two of the most important and most stunning ancient monuments in Europe: Skara Brae and Jarlshof.
More of that later; first, though, I’d like to take you with me on every part of our long journey – for which we used 10 different trains, 3 ferries, and also our poor feet exceedingly in order to see everything we’d planned to see…
Travelling by train from Wales to Scotland isn’t easy (most of the lines seem to be running north-south, and all railroads seem to be leading to London…), so we had to change at Chester, Warrington and Edinburgh in order to get from Holyhead to Inverness; all in all a trip of almost 10 hours. We arrived in beautiful Inverness, the capital of the Highlands, at 8pm, and there was still enough light to take some photos of the lovely city; we’d been here before 3 years ago, so a lot of it looked familiar already – and as a matter of fact, we already started planning then and there for another journey when we’ll spend more time here!
We’d booked a room at the Premier Inn – always comfy, reliable and economical – and we had a lovely dinner and a few drinks in the restaurant-bar; a perfect start into the holidays!
For one of us, though, this stay was something very special – of course, we’d taken our three little Celtic friends with us, as always, and for one of them this literally meant coming home: Nessie, whom we’d found here 3 years ago in a souvenir shop. Now, our room overlooked the river Ness, which of course goes directly into Loch Ness to the south of the city, and so she was sitting at the window all evening, communicating in secret sea snake sounds with her legendary Mum…
At the market the next day, I even found a T-Shirt with a ‘Wanted’ poster (see the family resemblance?) – no problem at all for little Nessie, because, as she says with a wink in her eye, “They’ll never find her!”
Then it was time to move on, even further north, to the northern tip of the British mainland: Thurso, and its port named Scrabster, from where the ferries sail to Orkney. Another train journey of about 4 hours, but then we were going to have a day off here in the idyllic little port town in order to really get into the mood for the islands – and what a perfect place to spend some time in: friendly, pretty, equipped with a cosy hotel with a view to the port…
… and a couple of first-class seafood restaurants where we enjoyed mussels and a wonderfully romantic atmosphere!
So, everyday life already seemed lightyears away when we finally boarded the boat to Stromness, Orkney – more about that magical island next time, dear friends… Meanwhile, if you’ve started thinking about visiting Northern Scotland and the Islands yourselves – don’t hesitate to do it, I can only recommend it with all my heart!
Roberta Franklin 