God Save The Queen

Sidney's Unique Experience Of Witnessing The Queen's Funeral In London

The reign of Queen Elizabeth II is hard to fully comprehend.

The longevity of her time as Queen of the United Kingdom can be put into perspective in a number of different ways, but here is my favorite.

Not only has she been Queen for the entirety of my lifetime, but also both of my parents’ lifetimes!

In fact, the majority of people reading this can probably claim this, or at least close to it.

She was a cultural and political icon, and that is why I will never forget the moment we found out about her passing.

I was with Sidney, my mom, and my brother Sam in a cozy Berlin wine bar on the evening of September 8th.

As we were enjoying a glass of wine and discussing our plans for the night, Sidney got a message from Abi, a good friend from Marquette.

Abi’s dad lives in England, and has a few friends with connections in Westminster. They had begun to pass along rumors about 45 minutes before the major news outlets officially released the story.

The Royal Family was gathering, and many believed it had to do with the Queen’s health.

About an hour later, we all got news alerts on our phones confirming that Queen Elizabeth II was dead at the age of 96.

Despite the Queen’s advanced age and declining health, this still came as a massive shock. It is just hard to picture a world where she is not the Queen!

After discussing the news for a bit, we all suddenly realized something. Sidney was going to be departing from Prague and heading to London in 9 days time.

Was it possible that she would be there for the historic funeral?

It turns out that the answer was yes!

As Sidney headed for the UK to rendezvous with her Aunt Julie, Uncle Frank, and younger cousin Samantha for 6 days in London and Paris, everything looked to be lining up perfectly.

Sidney arrived 2 days before the funeral, and London was already in full mourning. However, she described the mood as more celebratory than somber.

Unfortunately, there was a complication with the travel arrangements out of Iowa for Sidney’s family, which made them miss their connecting flight. They had to spend the night in Dallas and missed out on a full day in London.

Despite the rocky start, they made it in plenty of time to celebrate the Queen’s life!

Sidney enjoyed taking them around to some of our favorite spots in central London.

London, as many of you know, has become one of our favorite cities this year. We love the exciting pace, the diversity, the energy, the access to public transportation, and especially, the pub culture.

We knew all along that Frank and Julie were going to love this aspect!

In London pubs, you don’t need to wait to be seated or book a reservation ahead of time. You just walk in, find an open table, and order at the bar.

To make it even more convenient, you also pay right at the bar, and there is no tipping required! They actually pay people in the service industry a living wage so they don't have to depend on customers tipping adequately on an honor system. What a concept!

The day and a half leading up to the funeral was respectfully cheerful around the city.

You couldn’t walk a few blocks without seeing a billboard or banner commemorating the Queen’s reign.

All of the pubs and restaurants they visited were packed full of people who either waited 20+ hours in line to see the Queen and say their farewells, or just decided to come down to London to take in the spectacle.

It was an incredible time to be there, and the odds of Sid and her family just happening to pick those dates is a truly fantastic coincidence!

After saying farewell to both the Queen and the city of London, they headed for another one of Europe’s majestic capitals: Paris!

Now, since I wasn’t a part of this 3-day adventure, I’ll save the deep dive into “The City of Light” for when I see it with my own eyes.

We’ll be visiting Paris at the end of November, and I can’t wait to have Sidney show me around!

But, needless to say, they did everything on the “must-see” list. The Eiffel Tower, the Arc de Triomphe, Notre Dame Cathedral, the Louvre, and so on.

I truly couldn’t imagine a better introduction to Europe for Samantha, who was crossing the Atlantic for the first time!

After Paris, they packed up and headed to the other side of the continent.

This brings us to the final chapter of our sensational September, when I met up with Sidney’s family for a week in the gorgeous Greek Islands!

But before we get there, I have to tell you what I was up to during this time with my mom and her sister.

After Austria, we took a beautiful bus ride down to the country of Slovenia with a very particular goal in mind!

My great-grandfather came from a small village in the northeast of Slovenia, and we were excited to see if we could find the house he grew up in!

On top of that, the Slovenian capital of Ljubljana and the picturesque Lake Bled have always been on my checklist!

More on those adventures in the next one, stay tuned 😁👍