The history of the world in an afternoon

I am not really "collecting" Shipping Forecast areas, inshore waters and coastal stations. Not as such. But I do seem to have gathered quite a lot of them while I have been living in the UK. So when I realized that we were close to quite a remote coastal station I asked if it might be possible to go and look at Stornoway.

It's the largest town on the Isles of Lewis and Harris. I believe it has a population of about 9000. And it's quite cute. It's about an hour and a half from Paul and Carol's place. It has a large supermarket, several shops, a harbour, a castle - lots of things to amuse you. So we pottered about looking at it. We went to one of those shops that is filled with all sorts of things that you didn't know you needed until you went in so that Paul and Carol could get some wood for a new gate.

Then we went off to "do" the history of humanity in an afternoon!

We visited the Callanish Standing Stones, where we had lunch. The Builder and I had steak and ale pies which we had to wait some time for. But they were well worth the wait. Beautifully soft meat. After visiting the stones we went on to the Doune Broch and to the Norse Mill and Kiln and then finally to the Blackhouse Village. We drove around some spectacular countryside and were remarkably lucky with the weather. It was a great afternoon.

Paul's sister Ruth happened to be nearby this week. She's been doing a quilting course in a little hamlet not far from the Blackhouse Village. So we dropped round after her course had finished for the afternoon and scooped her up and we all headed back to Stornoway for an early dinner at HS-1 which managed to accommodate all of our various food allergies and requirements. I had one of the nicest local seafood plates that I've had in a very long time.

And then we took Ruth back to her holiday apartment in the middle of nowhere and mosied on back to Harris. All in all it was a great day