Back from the Far North now and missing my little attic room with its two windows facing east (North Sea) and west (towards the Atlantic). En route to Lerwick’s brilliant new (ish) museum last week was so pleased to see this old shoe sign still in place. Then noticed a Viking longship in the nearby harbour so had to investigate.
It’s called the Dimriv, which means ‘rising sun’, it’s made of larch and I met Douglas, one of its crew. Seeing the ship reminded me of a conversation I’d had with Andy Steven, Shetland’s Destination Manager. I’d asked him about Norwegian visitors’ feelings about their Viking connections. He said they had an ambivalant attitude. “Well … Viking … it’s not a good brand, is it?”
Lerwick’s museum is fantastic. But I was puzzled by the pervading smell of burning peat, very atmospheric for the displays of an ancient Shetland home but where?? One of the museum assistants showed me – a bottle of Vortex Burning Peat Aroma which is poured into a diffuser. As we chatted a man joined in the conversation – it was Pete Stack of Pete Stack and the Rayburns, aka Smirk, Shetland cartoonist. More chatting this time about drawing, and he did a moody pose for the blog.