Day 7 – June 26, 2024 – Stornoway (Hebrides), Scotland
So today I start the next decade of my life. I know it’s said that age is just a number, but 60 is starting to get up there, lol! We ended up sleeping in later than expected (that’s what blackout curtains can do for you!) and I had scheduled a deep tissue bamboo massage for 9 a.m. I had just enough time to grab a cup of coffee and then headed to the spa. Folks, I had over an hour of one of the best massages of my life! The bamboo sticks are using to apply deeper pressure and by the time I got out of there I was like a limp noodle! Would highly recommend!
After the massage, we went to grab a quick lunch, then headed to the shuttle bus that took us into the town of Stornoway. We walked all over the town, went into some shops, and then walked around the grounds of Lews Castle (a gothic-style revival castle that hails from the mid 1800’s). The castle is now used for accommodations for travelers all over the world.
One of the stores we went in to was Tweedtastic, where we found potholders made from Harris Tweed, which is a tweed cloth that is handwoven by the islanders at their homes located in the Outer Hebrides of Scotland and made from pure virgin wool that is also dyed and spun in the Outer Hebrides. So, the potholders – John and I have been looking for some new ones that are the mitt type, but not the long ones that come up to our elbows. All we have found so far are too thick so that when your hands are in them, you basically have no grip whatsoever. These were perfect and a great memory from our trip!
We headed back to the bus, reboarded the ship, cleaned up and met the parents for happy hour and dinner. Tonight, dinner was in Prime 7, which is a steak house so guess what we had??? John and I had the surf and turf, and it was wonderful. We ordered a nice bottle of wine to go with the meal and then I was serenaded by some of the staff and presented a nice birthday cake (it was almost like a tiramisu and was yummy!)
After dinner, John and I headed to the Horizon Lounge, which is at the aft end of the ship and was entertained by three of the staff for a rendition of Liar’s Club. The staff was given four words, ones I’ve never heard of, and they each gave their taken on the meaning of the word and then you had to pick which one was telling the truth. It was hilarious! We sat with another couple that were from Israel and we managed to get one correct out of the four correct.
Afterwards, John got this brilliant idea to do tequila shots. (Who are you and where is my husband???!) There were three different varieties of the Patron, so we tried all three. At first, we were each given three shot glasses, but I quickly said no way, lets just share them, lol!!!!! We sampled the Silver, Reposado, and the Anejo. Cheers to 60! We called it a night after that as we have an excursion tomorrow starting at 1:30 p.m. Nite all 😊
ABOUT STORNOWAY – taken from the daily newsletter
- Stornoway is the main town and largest settlement on the Isle of Lewis in the Outer Hebrides
- It has a strong Gaelic heritage, with 43% of the population speaking Scottish Gaelic
- It was founded by Vikings in the early 9th century, with the name being Old Norse meaning “steering bay”.
- The town is a fishing hub and is now a center for Harris Tweed production.
- It serves as the main port and transportation hub for the Outer Hebrides.
- One attraction is the Calanais Standing Stones, a prehistoric stone circle older than the Pyramids of Giza.
