PHOTO: Buckingham Palace in London, United Kingdom. (Photo via DaLiu / iStock / Getty Images Plus)
I know I know. I’m about to sound like a travel snob, or, as the kids say, bougie.
I’m really not. But it’s hard for me to let the opportunity slip by without telling you to get on the plane and head to England for the coronation of King Charles in two weeks.
A once-in-a-lifetime thing?
I don’t want to say that this is a rarity. But we all thought the same thing more than 70 years ago when Queen Elizabeth took the throne. After all, Charles has an older son who is ready, willing, and capable of becoming king But you can’t think that way. You can’t think that this is something that you will see again in our lifetime, or just assume it.
I am reminded of this because a friend of mine was traveling in Italy about a decade ago. It was a wonderful trip, to be sure, but she saw the same things and the same sights that everybody els did. And then Pope Benedict decided to step down, in and of itself with history-making. I will never forget her saying that the pomp and circumstance of electing one of the Cardinals to become the new pope, and all the white smoke and black smok billowing from the Vatican, were unreal. She was something of an accidental tourist. It’s like the Roman Coliseum and othe historical sites didn’t even exist.
Now comes the coronation, which is a little more structured and far more planned. Still, it’s an anomaly History just happens, you don’t plan it.
In many regards, this is like an uprising or a regime falling or even a volcano erupting. You just don’t expect it. In many ways, it’s almost spontaneous.
That’s part of the beauty of travel; you see things you just never expect to happen So maybe we should all catch a flight to England to see history and pomp and circumstance in the making. There might b another opportunity for this, or there might not be.
Again, that’s part of the beauty of travel. Stonehenge and Buckingham Palac and Royal Guards always going to be there, as long as there’s a monarchy. We may or may not ever see a coronation again.
This is why we travel. To see something we might never see again.
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