Hassells in the Highlands

The Pentland Hotel is a lovely old hotel right in the middle of downtown Thurso. By 'downtown,' I mean it's right in the middle of town, at the town square. My first introduction to the hotel was during my first week here. Cathy said, "The ladies get together on Wednesday mornings at 11 am for coffee. They meet in the lobby of the Pentland Hotel. Would you like to go?"  Potential new friends AND Coffee? Of course I did! I walked with her there in the rain. And there I met several other ladies. Coffee at the Pentland seems to be a little like meeting at Starbucks in that groups of women meet there to fellowship over coffee. Or tea.  Except it is so NOT Starbucks.  It is old and has carpet and upholstered chairs and has a sort of  'presence' that only old buildings have. And it has a bar. And occasionally I see men there having a beer at 10:30 am. There seem to be several different groups - women, mostly - who meet there....

Ciao! (Hello!) Venice was che bella (beautiful). Italy is the land of beautiful, flowing language. I feel sure that a person could say almost anything  in Italian and it could be interpreted as crooning words of love. Our gondola ride was a perfect example. We shared a gondola with two new friends we made on the Bar Tour (or Pub Crawl), depending on who you ask), just as it was getting dark. A romantic time of day. And we asked our gondolier to go down the small canals instead of the Grand Canal. Again, romantic. And soon, we heard our gondolier singing!  How delightful!  How romantic! After listening for a few minutes, sharing a kiss or two and snuggling in to each other, we asked him what he was singing about. His answer? Football!  LOL!  That's what we get for asking! water bus stop. They gather inside and wait for the boat to arrive The people who live in Venice seem to be a little indignant about being called "Italians." They are "Venet...