Scotland/Switzerland/Germany Trip – Day 1, September 18th

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 certain issues, including the relevance of a monarchy.

After a wonderful lunch at The Ivey on the Square we headed to the train station in Edinburgh and caught a train to Glasgow, where we met the group we will be hiking with for the next week. Because we were going to be visiting one of the couples on the trip anyway the following week in Switzerland and Germany, we decided to join this group to hike the West Highland Way for the next 7 days. 

The West Highland Way is a 96 mile long-distance trail running northwest from Milngavie, which is just north of Glasgow in the Lowlands, to Fort William in the Scottish Highlands, There is a fair amount of hill walking in the route.  The trail, which opened in 1980, was Scotland’s first officially designated Long Distance Trail and is now designated as one of Scotland’s greatest trails. About 120,000 people hike the West Highland Way each year, with about 36,000 walking the entire route.  Notable wildlife along the trail includes feral goats, red deer, and golden eagles. 

The Way uses many ancient roads, including ancient drover’sroads, military roads, dating to the Jacobite uprisings, and old coaching routes.  The route is commonly walked in seven to eight days.  A walk along the Way is often broken up into sections or stages, each of which is typically walked in a day ranging from 9 to 19 miles. 

When we arrived in Glasgow, we met part of our hiking group for dinner at Two Fat Ladies at The Buttery.  During dinner, we joined the rest of Great Britain to honor the late Queen Elizabeth with a moment of silence at 8 p.m. Afterwards, I asked Richard, one of our fellow hikers and a British citizen, what value does the average British citizen see in continuing the monarch? His answer was very straightforward. He said the monarch creates a check and balance on the parliament. Technically, the monarch can veto any legislation passed by the parliament. In addition, the prime minister of Great Britain is required to meet with the Monarch each and every week. 

So, although the monarch has never exercised the power of veto in recent history, the threat is real. That combined with the requirement that the prime minister meets with the monarch on such a regular basis creates stability in the government – or at least, perceived stability. Queen Elizabeth served with no less than 15 prime ministers, going back 70 years to Winston Churchill. That means she had a lot of wisdom to share with each new prime minister.  And because Queen Elizabeth tried to remain apolitical, she was perceived as a ballast during wild political swings.  

After dinner we met for drinks at our hotel and discussed logistics for our upcoming 96-mile hike to Fort William, which we will complete in 7 days. 

Elizabeth and I are very much looking forward to reconnecting on the trail with this group after a year of not seeing each other. This group is the same group that we hiked with on the Camino in Spain in 2019 and the Rheinsteig in Germany last year.  The group changes a little on each trip. This year the group includes 5 couples with one couple from England, two from Switzerland, one from Germany, and ourselves.  So, tomorrow begins the first stage of our hike with a 12-mile hike from Milngavie – pronounced ‘Mull-guy’ to Drymen.