THIS IS YOUR KINGDOM, WHEREVER YOU ARE

Tube Station (no upgrades here)

In a prior This is Your Kingdom post (Feb 6, 2022) I mentioned the online UK travel guide that handpicks contributors to write about their favorite places.  London is mine.  We were newlyweds there, lived on a tiny stipend, had a baby and generally built memories that helped shape a strong marriage.  I hope everyone has such a spot from their youth.  For three years, just about every outing we took began at Russell Square Underground Station. 

Now we've just come back from showing London to two grandchildren, ages 17 and 18.  We all have dreams that we may have to abandon, but this one, sharing the best part of our past with these two, came true last week.  My heart is full. 

Our original time in London began in a room in student housing, bathroom down the hall and electricity dependent on our stash of shillings for the meter.  After a few months an apartment came through in a Trust called Goodenough College, set up for those whose countries helped England during WWII.  The apartment was fourth floor, small dormer windows, two-burner stove, closet and bedroom. It was perfect.  

We had a key to Mecklenburg Square, full of mature London plane trees. Virginia Wolfe lived near there in the 1920s.  Charles Dickens once lived down the block. 

This trip we stayed in Goodenough College again, one of many returns but perhaps the best, having these youngsters to share it with.  The Square hadn't changed.  We had always relied on pasta for a filling meal then and did so again.  If you live there or plan to go, the restaurant is Ciao Bella on Lamb's Conduit St. in Bloomsbury. 

Pasta for Four

This was a whirlwind week, exhausting for us grandparents, who skipped the early morning Trooping of the Colors.  But we did make it to Westminster Abbey, Stonehenge and most of the other sites.

Choir, Westminster Abbey

Queen Elizabeth I and her sister Queen Mary are buried together in Westminster.  So is Chaucer; and many more. The whole trip sometimes felt like a living history class, a feeling we often get when we travel to heritage sites, don't we? 

Stonehenge, Salisbury Plain

Like the best of times, the most wonderful part was seeing something new (or old) with people you enjoy most.  The trip was filled with love and caring, the cousins for each other and both of them for us, the grandparents who slow them down but admire and appreciate them.  It was their gift to us as well as ours to them. 

National Gallery, Trafalgar Square

When I need to remind myself to be grateful, I think this trip will be foremost for a long time.  Maybe forever.  Let's each look into our lives and see what we can recall that awakens our gratitude.  I bet it involves someone very, very special.                     

                                    With all good thoughts, Nina Naomi