Touring the Britannia

It's Tuesday evening and we are back in London. I want to share with you our Monday in Edinburgh. It was our day to tour the Britannia, the royal yacht that was mothballed in 1997. Every monarch in England has built at least one castle or house except Elizabeth II and she built this yacht in the 50's. It was reported to be the only place she felt she could truly relax from her royal duties and even then the notorious red box filled with things she had to tend to every day was flown to her no matter where she was in the world on this yacht. Effectively she worked at least two hours a day while on "vacation".

The tour was well worth the 9 pounds apiece (senior rate!). We spent almost 4 hours touring the yacht. It was furnished as they left it when it was decommissioned in 1994. The only changes that were very obvious were the glass walls which replaced the real walls so you could into the private bedrooms, etc. The picture above is the Queen's bedroom which John took through the glass wall. It's obvious that was changed! I was surprised at the simplicity of the furnishings she and Prince Phillip chose for the yacht. It was very casual in most areas. The drawing room where she entertained important guests was very English, very elegant and yet casual at the same time. Here is a picture of that area:

It is quite lovely. Notice the fireplace. The queen wanted to have a real fire there but when she found out that that would require a crew person to be in the room at all times - during formal events and family events - to man the fire she decided that electric was better. Many heads of state were entertained here and housed on the yacht - Reagan, Clinton, Mandela, etc. It was just wonderful being there and imagining all that went on there. I'm going to try to see if I can also get a picture of the formal dining area in as well.



I did it! This room was very interesting because on the walls of each alcove there were gifts to the queen from different guests, everything from a small head from Easter Island to a turtle sculpture from the Galapagos. The room can seat up to 56 guests and it is done as elegantly as any state dinner at Buckingham. Every place setting is measured with precision so everything is exact.

Well, I've done something wrong with this blog. Every time I hit the space button the picture moves down along with what I am typing and I have no idea how to get it to stop! So I am going to post this blog and start all over rather than trying to figure it out. This also explains why this picture of the dining room is about five lines below the copy about it! It just keeps moving down as I type!