O to be in England... For a Royal Wedding

"Oh to be in England, now that spring is here." -- Robert Browning

Alas! I'm here in the states, across the pond from the greening of England's magnificent spring, full of yellow daffodils and red tulips and blue skies.

Not that you'd get to see much of that, with all us Yanks over there with the rest of the world (an extra 600,000 according to VisitBritain) to celebrate
the Royal Wedding of Kate Middleton to Prince William.

I remember getting up at 4 a.m. for Diana's wedding to Prince Charles. I was planning my own wedding for the next year, so you know I took notes.

Her dress, the music, the flowers, the carriage... but we payed for our wedding ourselves, so the fanciest elements in our wedding were the limousine, the pipe organ,  and the silver champagne coolers that held my flowers, cut fresh from my florist's garden that morning. It was all pretty simple.

But... we honeymooned in LONDON!
It's a gorgeous city, with history everywhere you turn. I haven't been everywhere, but for pageantry and atmosphere and architecture and costumes and graveyards, London is amazing.

And it's amazingly accessible.







Want to see the Crown jewels, the Star of Africa?


Visit the tombs of Dickens? Oscar Wilde? Percy Shelley? Lord Tennyson?

They're all in Westminster Abbey, along with hundreds more.  Really... the place is one big mausoleum.













There's the media who report that the royal wedding is a drag on England's economy, and maybe that's true. Surely the government could find a better place to spend all that money. All those flags, all those tourists, all those kitschy souvenirs... yeah, their merchants are really going under.

Sometimes I think the media wants to find the cloud in every silver lining. 

I'm very happy for Wills and Katie. They're a beautiful couple and their wedding will be extravagant and lavish, as only an unlimited budget and a setting of flying buttresses and gothic clustered columns should be. It's all a treat for us romantics at heart who love splendid bridal gowns and handsome grooms in uniform. It's an omen, a foreshadowing, a signal that better times and higher spirits are ahead.
Do you agree? Disagree?

And it's worthy of me setting my alarm for 4a.m. to watch it live on my little television set. 
 Any weddings you'd get up at 4o'clock in the morning for? 

THE year's at the spring,

And day's at the morn;

Morning's at seven;

The hill-side's dew-pearl'd;

The lark's on the wing;

The snail's on the thorn;

God's in His heaven--

All's right with the world!

Robert Browning