It is done! A new layout and a new space! After hours and hours of thinking and rethinking, new ideas, old ideas, coding-despair and bug-solving, red wine and white wine ... here it is, my new space! For a while now I had the feeling that it was time for a change. For a new place where I can put together my pictures, my memories, parts of me.



It is a bit like moving in real life. Or like spring-cleaning. After taking the first steps out of the comfort-zone, it feels fresh and light and new. And what could better add to the feeling of freshness than pictures from the cold and breezy North Sea?! So, here we are: off to new adventures!

When I visited Norderney, one of the beautiful Frisian islands in the North of Germany, it was love at the first sight. Since there is a direct train from Berlin you can leave Berlin in the early morning hours and board the ferry with the late afternoon sunbeams. It is always a very special moment to be back at the sea and smell the salt of the water. I'll never tire of this. And also not of long walks along the beach, making friends with the sea gulls and watching the waves and the clouds ...

See you soon, Shetland!

We said Goodbye to Shetland on a grey-green Monday afternoon whose melancholic colour setting exactly mirrored our mood. 

It was not easy to leave this place which had already conquered us so completely. 

While the ferry slowly navigated out of the harbour I stood at its platform and watched the houses of Lerwick passing by. I seldom found it so hard to leave a place.

As I told you some time ago I'm not a proven sailor and some days before our departure I started to watch the forecast. And for me as a newbie-on-the-sea, the weather was not promising. Wind force 8 forecast really freaked me out. And the captain promising to make our travels as comfortable as possible (as possible?! Eeek!) didn't help. When the vessel reached the open sea and started to go up and down, and up and down, I really got terrified. Really. But I can assure you: they serve hefty soup on such vessels for a reason. Real sailor food. After some hours the vessel became steadier and the wind decreased a bit, so that I could reward myself with a drink and a knit. The clouds drifted apart, just in time when we passed Fair Isle.

My memories of this passage will always be related to anxiety, the taste of beer and the sound of clacking needles.

While writing this post, I've really got in the mood for novels about sailors and the sea, so any recommendations are welcome! :)

Next stop: Orkney Islands!

The northernmost point of Britain's northernmost islands

The longest journey we took while we stayed in Shetland was the trip to Hermaness. It is located in the north of Unst, which again is the northernmost island of the Shetland Island, making it the northernmost point of Britains northernmost islands. By the way, Unst also has Britain's northernmost bus shelter (which is always decorated with much love and even has its own website). In short, Britain's northernmost everything is in Unst :)

Our journey began early in the morning, when we took the bus from Lerwick and started to hop from island to island. It is all really well and smoothly organised: there's the busdriver on the Mainland taking you to the ferry, where you are instantly picked up, on the other side another (smaller) bus waits for you, driving you cheerfully across Yell, next ferry, and then you are in Unst. The even smaller bus (8 people max, I think) that waited there drove us all across Unst up to the Unst Heritage Centre, where we were warmly greeted by the wonderful ladies who work there. The centre once was a school house, and now serves as a little museum with stories about the famous lighthouse Muckle Flugga, life on Unst and of course artefacts of the beautiful lace knitting. The ladies working there are mostly teachers, who once taught there when it still was a school. They impressed me very much, they were so enthusiastic and put so much love and effort in their exhibition and workshops - if you ever happen to be in Unst, don't miss this lovely centre.

The staff of Lerwick's tourist bureau reminded us to tell the bus driver in Unst that we want to go back the same day, so that he or she picks us up again in the afternoon and drive us back to the ferry. So we had a few hours for our stay in Unst. Hermaness was still some kilometres away from the centre but one of the ladies suggested to drive us up to Hermaness so that we only had to walk back. Did I already mention how friendly and lovely Shetland's people are...?

I lack the words that describe this wonderful place Hermaness. There was sunshine and colours and a landscape that reminded me of a science fiction story so unearthly it seemed to me. So instead of trying to put this into words, I let my pictures speak. Come with me...

The sheep's television: watching fishing boats float by...

These whitish blobs are sheep - just to put the vastness of these amazing cliffs into perspective...

Birdies et al.

Some time ago I wrote about our failed trip to Noss. We didn't make it to the island but some days later we took a boat trip around it.

The other side of Noss, the side that faces the open North Sea, is quite a spectacular seabird colony. I'm not so much into birds but when I saw pictures of the massive cliffs we had to book a boat trip to see them for ourselves. On our way to the colony we also met other fellows of the sea - e.g. this gull, which followed our boat until it got some cookie crumbs (I think it knew this coming...). We also passed this little holm where seals were sleeping (or rather digesting as Captain Tom told us).

And *drumroll*: a shark. Actually a basking shark, as we were told, the second largest fish in the world. And not dangerous, I think, because it is a vegetarian and not interested in boats full of potential food. But yes, I am a media victim, I immediately had the "Jaws" melody stuck in my head. And it really was like in the film, it swam from left to right, drawing nearer and nearer. It triggers a bit of an unpleasant feeling in the stomach. But since we were in the boat and it was not very interested in us, I decided to like it.

Can you see its snout? It must be huuuuuuge... we assumed it had at least 7 metres...

And then our boat went around a corner and we could see the amazing cliffs and the thousands of birds. The cliffs rise up to more than 150 metres and we were told there are sometimes more than 150.000 birds living or rather breeding in this colony.

These below are gannets. I think they are rather unpleasant fellows especially to each other... I would keep a distance...

I cannot say that I would go there again, it is nothing for a light stomach. The smell of thousands of birds is overwhelming and together with the hopping boat... I got seasick for the first time in my life.

But I'm not sorry for going there since it was an outstanding, incredible, almost surreal experience of nature.

Thank you so much for these wonderful hours, Dunter III crew!