This trip was supposed to happen in 2020 when the Hoffmanns had invited us to attend the world renowned Passion Play, which is performed every 10 years, for the 2020 performance. But due to COVID it was postponed to 2022. So, here we are. After driving from Weggis, Switzerland to Oberammergau, Germany on Wednesday, we walked around town in the rain to get our bearings before returning to our hotel and a warm Bavarian meal. Because the entire play is performed in German, we attended a one-hour English introduction the next morning, which was fascinating. I learned that the first play was performed in 1634 and every 10 years after…

Days 5 and 6, 19 mile and 9 mile legs respectively, is very remote hiking. This part of the hike offers up close and personal views of the surrounding mountains while walking through beautiful glens and moors.  On Day 5 we hike from Tyndrum to Kingshouse, where we stay at the Kingshouse hotel. This will be our longest day. Part of our group could not hike today due to a cold and injuries – Elizabeth (bad cold), Rolf (Achilles) and Mary (foot).  Soon after leaving Tyndrum, we skirt the steep sides of Beinn Odhar to the right with the pyramid of Beinn Dorain sitting ahead, a companion all the way across the floor of the beautiful…

On the third day of our hike we left Rowardennan and continue north along the remote eastern shore of Loch Lomond for 13 miles to Ardleish, where we take a ferry at the end of the day to Ardlui, which is across the lake on the Western Shore, where we will spend the night and have dinner at the Ardlui Hotel. I want to stress that none of these locations are what I would call villages. They consist of a few houses and a hotel. This section of the hike follows the northern, very remote section of Loch Lomond where the waters plunge to a depth of 620 feet and…

Day 2 – After spending our first day in Scotland in Edinburgh and Glasgow, we started day two on the first leg of our hike on the West Highland Way. We would hike 12 miles from Milngavie – pronounced ‘Mull-guy’ to Drymen. At 8:45 a.m. we left Milngavie and headed north, passing Mugdock Castle before emerging into open countryside, where the Campsie Fells (hills) could be seen in the distance. After passing relatively small Craigallian loch (lake) on the right, we stopped at a small monument along the trail where we took a break. As the Way approached Drymen, we walked through small hills and a small but heavily wooded…

Yesterday Elizabeth and I flew from Richmond to JFK before taking an overnight flight to Edinburgh, Scotland.  Upon our arrival, we collected our luggage and headed to the center of town to have lunch with Susan and Suthy, who now live near Edinburgh.  Susan and Suthy had hosted me and our sons at The New Club in St. Andrews when we attended the British Open during our Great Britain Trip in the summer.  So, it was great to see them again so soon. And they had not seen Elizabeth since our hike together in Provence, France in 2017.  During lunch Suthy explained to me that the Scots are as divided as Americans are on…

Before we left Carlisle this morning we changed our plans. We were originally going to leave Carlisle and head south straight to Keswick, our base in the Lake District for the next three days. However, we decided to begin our day heading 20 miles east to visit the Roman frontier fort Vindolanda and a portion of Hadrians Wall. I am glad we did. The boys and I are huge fans of Roman history. All of us listened to a podcast several years ago called “The History of Rome” that consisted of more than 100 hours of narrative that detailed the rise and fall of the Roman Empire from 700 B.C.…

It’s Sunday July 10th, 2022. Over the next two weeks, I will be visiting Great Britain with my three sons. The last time the Franklin men took a trip together was in 2019, when we all travelled to San Francisco and the wine valleys, a trip we all loved. Today was a long day with a 500 mile drive from London to St. Andrews. We landed in London at 6:30 a.m., drove Northeast to York, where we stopped to walk around and had lunch. We then hugged the Northumberland Coast until we got to Bamburgh castle, where we spent some time walking the beach and sand dunes. We then drove…