10.10.05

Gellions - The Oldest Pub in the Highland's Capital

We've dispersed for lunch. Pubgrub for my wife & I (our preference in Scotland, actually), with Ginger & Ed deciding to join us. Now was to come the absolutely most devastatingly difficult decision we were to make the entire trip and for decades on either side. We had been awakened early that morning by a call from our house-sitter stateside. It seemed that Marita Beth's family needed to contact us regarding a "death in the family." Of course, we fretted & worried through the entire morning's events, but there was nothing that could be done from our location except wait. We had called MB's family, but could do nothing but leave a message. During our lunch at Gellion's, we finally received the return call that let us know William Todd's wife had tragically left her family. No details about that need to be written here, but suffice it to say it was not unexpected. Certainly, MB and I had discussed that eventuallity during our trip North to Inverness. Did we stay & finish our holiday, or did we return home to attend her funeral. The family & we decided there was nothing we could do there so we finished out our holiday. But first, we finished our lunch. Sitting in Gellion's, I could look across the street to a very modern office-building in the shadow of Inverness Castle directly over it. The dichotomy was brilliantly breath-taking. Some pasties & chips and a couple of pints later, we left Gellion's to meet the rest of our party for the afternoon's excursion. Wastrel On! (Listening to Everlasting Love by U2)