My cousin Kaitlin has been teaching English in Spain this past year. So we (my partner Aongus and I) decided to add a second stamp to her passport and we invited her up to London for an extended weekend

Aongus meet her at the Tube station and guided her home from the airport, with a stop for dinner at our favorite Indian restaurant, Indigo at Richmix. Meanwhile, I sped back via train from my conference in Newcastle and arrived home minutes before them.

We were up bright and early Thursday morning for the start of a whirlwind tour that lasted four days.

On day one, we included:

• Kaitlin’s first double-decker bus trip, on Bus 8, so as to see St. Paul’s and other prominent sites from the top deck, front row–best seats on the bus!
• Sir John Soane’s House Museum, full of Roman antiquities and memorable painting and flooded with daylight in every corner.
• The British Museum, stopping for coffee in the courtyard and visiting the South American and Egyptian sections.
• Dashing into the Building Centre in Store Street to view the enormous model of London.
• A relaxing couple of hours in Bloomsbury, for lunch with my UCL colleagues Emanuela and Folashade–our farewell sendoff to Queen Mary University of London for Folashade.
• A walk to Picadilly Circus and the courtyard of the Royal Academy, with rose petal macaroons at Laudre in the Burlington Arcade, then onward to Green Park, the gates of Buckingham Palace, and a stroll across St. James’s Park.
• Arriving at Westminster Abbey in perfect time to attend the choral Evensong.
• A walk to Trafalgar Square and up Strsnd Street to fetch tickets at the box office of The Savoy.
• A quick but tasty dinner at Itsu, where Aongus joined us after his work day.
• A delightful evening at the West End musical “Dreamgirls”
• Wrapping up the day with a walk through Covent Garden, stopping at Gelaterino before our bus ride home

Day two was filled with more adventures. This was Saturday and we headed by Tube to the Bourough of South Kensington and Chelsea for:

• The Saatchi Gallery (modern art)
• Kale salad and chestnut/almond waffles at a favorite cafe on Sloane Avenue
• The Natural History Museum, where we focused on the dinasoaur and mammal exhibitions
• Drinks and tagines at the Comptoir Libanas restaurant on Exhibition Road where we snagged an outdoor table under the awnings and heat lamps to avoid the evening rainstorm
• Art-till-you-drop and cultural-encounters-of-all-kinds at the Victoria and Albert Museum (we saw several new wings due to Kaitlin’s interest in world religions)
• Visits to high-end furniture shops and luxury department stores (John Lewis top to bottom, Herrod’s food courts, and Harvey Nichols tour of floors)
• Pints at the Wilton Arms to again wait out the rain, and chat with some lively Brits
• Dinner nearby at the Alfred Tennyson to round out the day and a stroll through high-end alleyways en route back to the tube–admiring the pricy vehicles.

Kaitlin spent day three with a friend she graduated university alongside. I’m so impressed with Kaitlin and all she has learned and done. She graduated first in her university class last year and then came to teach in Spain fresh out of college. She has taught both in a school and also private lessons and she even played soccer competitively, on a team in Spain.

Since it was Sunday and she was otherwise occupied, Aongus and I made the most of the day with:

• A visit to the Imperial War Museum and the Tibetian Peace Garden, located on its grounds
• A walk over to Trafalgar Square with a delightful Sunday roast at The Clarence
• Fancy desserts at the sushi place in Kingly Court
• Bus ride back to Shoreditch to catch up with Kaitlin at a South American restaurant near our home

On day four, Kaitlin and I had specific plans. We headed to:

• The Churchill War Rooms, also viewing the exhibition on Churchill’s life
• The London Eye, for a half-hour trip around this impressive Ferris wheel with its sweeping views of London
• A quick visit to the National Gallery
• Our second lunch in Bloomsbury at Dim T, since we enjoyed the one wit Folashade and Emanuela so much
• A walking tour across University College London’s city campus

We gathered our bags from my office at UCL and boarded the tube for Heathrow, where we bid each other farewell–me heading to Dublin for a week’s work and Kait back to Spain to wrap up her teaching.

It was a truly delightful four days, though I admit I was completely exhausted the day after we parted. It was a treat to get to know this first-cousin-once-removed a bit better and to learn how very much alike we are despite having drastically different parental upbringing. I’m so very impressed with the person she’s become and how intelligent and thoughtful and hardworking and courteous she is. I’m glad I’d worked ahead and could take comp days while she was here so I could really get to know her. It was a rare treat to tour the city with her, and one I hope to have someday again.