The Ferry to Shetland (43)

Hello. Welcome back. Happy to see you.

“How did you get to The Shetlands?”, you asked.

To be honest, no one asked me that but I want to talk about it anyway. We took the NorthLink Ferry across the North Sea from Aberdeen to Lerwick.

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The NorthLink Ferries are very nice. But we were asked,

“Why the ferry on the North Sea in January with high seas?”

In fact, earlier in the week, the sailings had been cancelled due to high seas and very rough water. The other option is to fly from Aberdeen. The planes are jets, but relatively small: 50 – 58 passengers. The price is £175 each. We decided we were happier on the water than in the air. After all, we can swim…..

The ferry cost £193 for both of us. We had a two berth cabin going over. Very comfortable, with a private bath and a window, a small desk and stool. We checked in at 5pm for a 7pm sailing. It is a 12 to 14 hour crossing, depending on the weather. We ate dinner on the ferry. A lot of choices and good prices.

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The ferry was equipped with a cinema, a casino (actually five slot machines in the bar), two bars, a First Class Lounge (off limits to us), a restaurant, and, of course, a gift shop. After we set sail, Anne and I set out to see the boat. In the bar, she decided to have a wee dram. I walked over to the “Casino” just to see it. One of the machines had a blinking button (actually, there was a lot of blinking lights) that was labeled “Cancel and Collect.” So I pushed the button. Six pounds (£6) dropped down into the tray. I took it and felt that my casino experience was a success. There was nothing on at the cinema that interested us.

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I went to bed and fell asleep being rocked by the boat’s up and down. Anne told me that it got very rough about 3am and she was considering getting dressed and sitting beside one of the life boats. But, we arrived in good time and in good shape. In the morning, we had breakfast: Full breakfast for £10 and cold breakfast, including porridge (oatmeal) for £7. ($12 to $9 respectively. It depends on the exchange rate of the day.)

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Then we headed out to meet our host, Elizabeth. She had generously volunteered to let us stay at her house for the Up Helly Aa. She met us at the Ferry Terminal with her little dog, Foxy: a real Shetland Sheep Dog. And we were off. You can read what happened then on my posts about the Shetland Islands and Up Helly Aa. (Posts 40, 41 and 42)

Going home, we had a slightly different experience. There were no cabins to reserve, so we were stuck with using a reclining seat, sort of like on the airplane. And, they let us rent a blanket and a pillow (more like a large, cotton TicTac.) Well, for a night’s sleep, this is not good. Yes, it reclined. And, yes it was sort of comfortable. But, no. Not good. My feet didn’t reach the foot rest and the chair was hard. So I decided to just sleep on the floor. I took a couple cushions from some chairs in the lounge, arranges them on the floor and gave it a shot. Not great, but I survived.

Anne did the same thing. She also survived. The interesting thing is that lying on the floor, I was able to feel when the boat lost contact with the water and then slammed down HARD after. It made for an interesting crossing.

After leaving the boat, we walked directly to the train station, just a block or two away. We then caught the 10-ish train for Elgin In Elgin, we caught the bus for Cullen and were home by 5:00pm.

I hope this post inspires you to come to Scotland and ride the ferry. It is a fun experience. Those of you who have been on cruises, this is nothing like that.

See you next time.