Stornoway and the Western Isles

Here are few more thoughts about cruising that have sprung to mind over the past couple of weeks. If you've read similar in previous posts, then please accept my apologies. My first thought concern keeping fit, an area that is particularly important, considering the amount of food on offer, and the easy access to it. Walking is one answer, although there are other activities such as deck quoits, deck tennis, a couple of swimming pools, plus, for the real posers a gymnasium or two. I of course, stuck to the walking and whilst the promenade deck on the Queen Anne lacks the open sea views of the other ships in  the Cunard fleet, it's still popular with passengers. 

Two and a half laps around the deck equate to one mile, but despite signs indicating the direction of travel (clockwise), it's amazing the number of walkers who either haven't seen it, or blissfully choose to ignore it. That aside, walking around the ship is quite sufficient to clock up the steps, and I'm pleased to report that, most days I've clocked up the requisite 10,000 + steps. Using the stairs, rather than taking the lift, is another way of maintaining fitness levels, and as the elevators, as our friends from across the Atlantic like to call them, are often crowded, the stairs make perfect sense. Another point worth noting here, is the age of many of the passengers, and whilst I wouldn't like to guess their average age, I'm fairly certain it will be some way above our age of three-score years and ten.

Our cruise ship docked at Stornoway on Wednesday lunchtime, and once the crew plus the local port authorities had established a "secure area" around the perimeter of the ship, guests were free to go ashore. It was a 15-20 minute bus journey into the centre of Stornoway, with a fleet of  buses, providing a regular shuttle service, although for the fit and reasonably healthy, there was the option of walking into town. 

This was by means of an all-weather gravel surfaced footpath, which was visible from the path. The guide on the ship had announced that the walk would take around 50 minutes, although looking on the map, provided free by the port authority, I think this was a little optimistic. Despite these misgivings, I was tempted to give the walk a try, but as Mrs PBT's said it would be anti-social of me, that put paid to that! The contrast in attitudes between those of the Stornoway port authorities, and those of Invergordon could not have been more striking, (no pedestrian traffic allowed in Invergordon port!)

The following morning, we took the shuttle bus into Stornoway, and were very impressed with what we found. As well as being a work-a-day port, the town is obviously the centre of commercial life, in this area of the Isle of Lewis. We ended up missing the town's sole real ale outlet - the Crown Inn & Harbour Bar, although we didn't look that hard whilst trying to find it. Instead we chanced upon the Star Inn, a cracking little pub looking out across the harbour. Even Mrs PBT's who's not the best known connoisseur of public houses, had to admit it was a real gem. 

No cask, of course, but only to be expected in this part of the world. The beer offerings were Tenants, Amstel, John Smiths, Moretti, and Cruzcampo, a beer that seems to be the new Madri! As I wrote a short while ago, the frequency at which these new, trendy, and "must stock" brands pop up on the bar, is either a sign of desperation on the part of the big international brewers, or evidence of the fickleness of the "premium" lager market. Beavertown Neck Oil was also on sale, and I did witness a pint being ordered. I might have ordered a pint for myself, had I seen other drinkers ordering the beer, but instead, decided to play things safe. After all, keg beers can also suffer the effects of slow turnover. 

Instead I ordered a pint of Guinness which, whilst never my favourite, turned out to be in fine form. The friendly girl behind the bar, who served me my pint, apologised for the slow pour, and explained that she had just put a new keg on. The Star was definitely a "wet led" pub, because apart from crisps, no food was available - as a small group of Americans discovered. They were given directions by the barmaid to a couple of pubs that would satisfy their requirements.

The recommended pub might have been the town's sole cask ale outlet, although I wasn't really paying much attention.  Strangely enough, copies of Gael Ale, branch magazine for CAMRA branches covering the Highlands and the Western Isles, were on display in the bar, so I took one away, to read later. (The biggest CAMRA branch in the world, according to the cover, although we're obviously talking about geographical areas here!) The Star seemed to have its own band of loyal regulars, none of whom seemed perturbed by the steady stream of "strangers" coming and going from the cruise  ship, and all in all the pub was a pleasant and very welcome find. 

Had food been available, then I'm sure we would have eaten there, but instead after doing a spot of shopping. Mrs PBT's can't resit the shops, especially as there were branches of both Peacocks and Boots in town. There were a couple of items I needed from these two stores, so after purchasing our various goodies  we queued up for the next available shuttle bus that would take us back to the ship.

Back on board ship, we discovered that the Queen Anne is the largest vessel to have visited Stornoway. We wondered as much, because we were berthed at the recently opened cruise centre, which was specially constructed to accommodate vessels of this size, and to open up the Western Isles to cruise ships. By the time we sailed away, on Friday evening, the fine weather we'd enjoyed since leaving Southampton (and before that), was on the way out. The skies had clouded over, the wind was getting up, and the temperatures were dropping. Overnight we would be sailing in a roughly southerly direction, and heading for the Isle of Mull. We wouldn't be docking there, but instead would be experiencing what is known in nautical circles as a "cruise by." Unfortunately, the weather the following morning wasn't exactly conducive for us to fully enjoy the scenic views we had been promised, but that's a tale for another day.