Fred. Olsen Balmoral Cruise day three: Lerwick, Shetland

Here is what he got up to!

Day three saw us arrive in Shetland and we were initially told that we wouldn't be able to dock in Lerwick due to the size of the ship.

The plan was to board smaller boats that would ferry us from the Balmoral to the port in the town.

However, we woke up and looked out from our balcony to see that we were parked as close as we could be to Lerwick.

Wanting to waste no time, Nicole and I got ready, wolfed down our breakfast and then raced towards the gangway.

Fort Charlotte (Image: Newsquest) I had never been to Shetland, nor did I realise just how far north it actually was, so I was pretty excited to get off of the boat and explore.

We walked into Lerwick and the layout of the town allowed us to walk around in a circular loop to explore the shops.

My first order of business was to pick up a copy of the local newspaper, something I make a habit of doing on every holiday I go on.

We stopped by their local shop and picked up The Shetland Times before heading into the town's bookshop, also called The Shetland Times.

The Shetland Times Bookstore (Image: Newsquest) On a similar path, we bumped into Megan and Andrew, two of the other people from our press group.

I was drawn in by some cannons facing out towards the Bressay Sound so we made our way towards them and explored Fort Charlotte.

The site played a key role in protecting Lerwick from invading forces in the wars and even earlier than that.

After exploring some of the town centre shops, Nicole and I made our way towards the Knab, a tip on the edge of Lerwick that offered spectacular views of both the town and out on the water towards Orkney.

The view from the Knab. (Image: Newsquest) From the Knab, we walked alongside a golf course (thankfully nobody was playing!) and then considered making our way towards Sound - a town next to Lerwick with colourful houses and a loch.

However, we felt we didn't have enough time to do both that and our scheduled afternoon tour, so we stopped by a cafe in Lerwick to have our lunch (I had the sweet chilli chicken panini) before walking back to Balmoral.

Lerwick Town Hall. (Image: Newsquest) Fred. Olsen had offered us a range of tours for each stop the Balmoral visited - with Georgina pencilling us in for one tour per destination of our choice.

The cruise handbook had around seven or eight different tour options per stop and I'll admit we struggled to pick from some very good choices for some places.

For Shetland, we picked the Jarsholf and Southern Shores tour, boarding the bus at half 12 and meeting our tour guide.

The bus took us through Shetland towards the south of the island, with the guide talking us through much of the area's history.

The ruins at Jarlshof. (Image: Newsquest) The tour guide was the highlight of the day, touching on her family's past to teach us about the farming, fishing, politics and ownership of the islands.

Pictures were passed around the bus of men farming peat, who were then revealed to be the guide's great-great grandparents!

Some of the most interesting facts we learned about Shetland included their governance, formally becoming part of Scotland in 1472 as part of a dowry payment, which the islands even used to be called Zetland before changing their name in the 70s.

Shetland also holds the unofficial record for strongest gale, coming during a bad storm in the 1990s - the record is only unofficial because the machine that would have formally logged the gale blew away during the storm!

Our guide also told us that, alongside Orkney, Shetland would prefer to be independent from Scotland, standing as its own place.

The view from the tower at Jarlshof. (Image: Newsquest) For anyone who is a fan of the TV series Shetland, we got to stop by some of the filming locations for it - I hadn't seen the show, but I may be inspired to watch it now!

We arrived at a place called Jarlshof later that afternoon to explore the remains of a settlement at the south of the island.

Nicole and I walked through what's left of the early Scots homes, hearing how they constructed the buildings, sourced food and fed themselves.

Much of it had been lost to erosion from the sea, but the site had also been expanded later in its history by the arrival of the Vikings to Shetland.

Following that, it became a Norse settlement, with the last resident moving out in 1850, becoming a heritage site not long after.

Spanish-style Salmon with wedges and vegetables. (Image: Newsquest) We enjoyed refreshments in a nearby hotel before boarding the bus again and heading back to the Balmoral.

A long day off the boat had taken it out of us and we fell asleep for a quick nap, only being awoken by the crew member delivering the canopies - and it's a good thing he did, else I might have missed dinner!

Tonight's meal was a taste of the region dish - which Fred. Olsen do during their stops to allow passengers to taste the local delicacies.

Comedian Erin McKinnie. (Image: Newsquest) The chefs had prepared Spanish-style salmon, with a range of steamed vegetables - which I opted to go for and it has easily been the best meal I've had on the cruise so far.

The post-dinner entertainment for day three was comedian Erin McKinnie - who discussed modern-day dating and the pitfalls of online matching while also performing songs to entertain the crowd.

We had intended to watch a country singer in the Observatory deck, but after he performed Wagon Wheel, I was too tired to carry on so we headed back to our room for a sleep before two back-to-back sea days.