Staffa and Iona – Places, where we were nearer to heaven!

We reached Staffa in the early morning. Those guests getting up early could enjoy a nice sun rise already. When we started our landing operation, the first time on this cruise with our little red PolarCircelBoats, the sun was shining out of a clear blue sky – not very typical for the Hebrides in Scotland.

Staffa is very well known for its natural beauty of basalt columns and the huge and very impressive sea cavern “Fingal’s Cave”. The basalt columns belong to a geological volcanic stone belt out of the Tertiary that spreads under the sea-level to the northern coast of Ireland. Here we will be able to see these columns on our excursion to the “Giant Causeway” again.

As the weather was unbelievable nice nearly all passengers tried to stay as long as possible on the island. Blue jackets could be seen all over the island’s plateau. Everybody had enough time to enjoy an incredible spring day with temperatures around 18 – 20 degrees Celsius. 

All over the island flowers, like Violets, started to open their blossoms. Small willows showed their little cats already. We could see many passengers only sitting in the grass, watching the nature, and listen to the marvelous songs of the singing birds. It has been a very special and peaceful morning for everybody.

It was hard to leave the island but there was only short time for a fast lunch as we reached our next destination, the Island of Iona, around 14:00pm already.

Iona is a small island that belongs like Staffa to the Inner Hebrides. It has been the center of Irish monasticism for hundreds of years.

Saint Columba founded a first monastery on the island in 563. During the Middle Ages the Hiberno Scottish mission spread Christianity in Great Britain and the continental Europe. 

After a guided tour over the island passengers had time enough to learn the island by themselves or to enjoy the very nice weather with a five o’clock tea in the garden of one of the nice hotels.

People on the island told us that they have still the feeling that the distance between heaven and earth is smaller on Iona than on other places on the world. And yes, we could understand Iona’s inhabitants when we had to leave this very special and peaceful place on earth. There has been something everybody could feel, and we took this impression with us back on board.

Yet another day of fine weather! The morning was quite windy, but it did not cause enough waves to affect the ship as we at lunchtime sailed into Storm way on the Isle of Lewis. We went in large numbers on an afternoon excursion to see the impressive Callanish Stones, a prehistoric site rated second only to Stonehenge. This was a mound with many tens of stones 2-3 times taller than man, placed in circular and rectangular patterns, the meaning of which is still not understood.

Many of us were perhaps even more fascinated to be inside a black house, which is the name of large houses where poor families lived until only a century ago or so. The houses were – as other houses on the island – heated by the burning of peat, but these had no windows, only a small opening in the thatched roof directly above the permanent-burning fire. Gave a new meaning to the expression “smoke gets in my eyes”. These one-story stone constructions were relatively large, to give space also for their animals, and had “central heating”.

This was our second day visiting an island with no native trees. We understood why when the locals informed us that they could have winds of up to 90 miles an hour. It was a regular occurrence for schools to be closed on such “wind days”. Such information made us even more appreciate our luck today of sunshine and near-calm. 

A good mixture of history and wildlife

An exceptionally quiet North Sea meant that sea sicknesses was not a large problem on the crossing from Bergen to Lerwick, the capital of the Shetland Islands. The islands have a strong historical connection with Norway from Viking times, but even in modern times the link is strong. During the Second World War more than 200 sailings were made by mostly small fishing vessels transporting people escaping from Norway, and taking military equipment and personnel from the Shetlands. The most famous of the captains on this activity was nick-named Shetland-Larsen and he was one of the most decorated people of the whole allied marine forces.

The Shetland Islands are an archipelago of more than 100 islands. The islands – most are unsettled – have app. 22.000 inhabitants and they are famous for an abundance of wildlife - especially at this time of the year for sea birds.

FriedaPhoto

Most of our passengers choose the opportunity to examine the older history of the islands. They went to the Jarlshof, a remarkable archaeological site, with Neolithic remains and settlements from the Bronze and Iron Ages and remains of an old Viking settlement.

Others left for a visit to the little island of Mousa. Mousa is very famous for its Iron Age Broch, a stone-built house that looks a bit like a round tower. These brochs can be found all over on the Shetland Islands and the rest of the Scottish country. They are at least 2000 years old, historians are still not sure about the real age. For us it was nice to climb up the inside stairs of this 43feet high building to have a good view over Mousa Island. But Mousa is not only famous for the Broch, it is especially well known for its amazing wildlife that we also could enjoy on our walk around the island.

FriedaPhoto

FriedaPhoto

FriedaPhoto

 

FriedaPhoto

FriedaPhoto

All excursions came back so early that there was still time for everybody to learn the city of Lerwick.

 

The day ended with FRAM’s famous fashion show well presented by the captain, his officers and the expedition team.

Let’s start again

Three days of maintenance on board MV FRAM in Bergen that meant three days without passengers, three days with lots of meetings, with lots of workers running around the ship; people were running with important faces from meeting to meeting, travel agents tried to learn the ship, everybody seemed to be very busy and the ship looked between like an anthill.

God thanks, this afternoon everything went back to normal. Passengers arrived on board MV FRAM after a short city tour in Bergen around 16:00. 

The check in procedure was done fast. There was time enough to learn the ship before passengers went to their first dinner buffet. 

Just before MV FRAM left the harbor of Bergen the guests had to join the mandatory safety drill.

At 21:30 our Captain Rune Andreassen invited us for his Welcome Cocktail and introduced us to his team of officers and Karin Strand, our expedition leader, used later on the opportunity to present us her team of lecturers.

As all passengers had a long travel day all guests have been much tiered. So everybody was happy that we had to change our clock one hour backwards to get the Shetland Island time. One hour backward meant 1 hour longer sleep. That was just right for our first night on board.

It’s time to say good bye

Now it was there – the end of our trip. It came faster than we expected. Of course we knew that we had to leave at the 22^nd of April, and of course we knew that the calendar showed the 22^nd of April, but we did not want to accept it, but we had to accept it.

We reached Bergen in sunshine and that is very rare to see this beautiful town in sunshine. But we had sunshine nearly every day, why should it have been different on today?

After a brunch in our restaurant it was time to say good bye. But there is always a possibility to come back! 

It’s a sea day again

Our last day on board has been a sea day again. We had to cross the North Sea on our way to Norway. This region is very well known for its offshore oil exploration and it was nice for us to see these special constructions.

If you at home follow our blog more often than you will know already that our sea days are no lazy days. The lecture staff had prepared again lots of lecturers for us. So we learned about sea birds and salmon, about Van Gogh and the art here on board FRAM. The sea was calm like always on this cruise. There has been no excuse for us not to join the lectures.

In the late afternoon our Captain Rune Andreassen invited us to his Farewell Cocktail. 

Time was passing by very fast on this trip. We have been always busy. We saw and learned so much during the last days. It was wonderful.