The Royal Yacht Britannia
EDINBURGH, SCOTLAND – One of my favourite sights in Scotland was the Royal Yacht Britannia. It’s vintage and classy and used to sail the royal family around the world. But the Queen’s no longer allowed to use it as it’s too expensive to keep up (also the Labour government decided not to replace the yacht when they came to power in 1997) so now it’s berthed at a dock in Edinburgh where tourists such as I get to peek inside and get a glimpse of her former life for £12 (headset included).
Boy is this queen spoiled. The yacht was used for 40 years and travelled over 1 million miles to faraway places including the South Pacific.
Surprisingly, the Queen and her husband didn’t even share a bedroom! She slept on a single. I guess she just needed some space.
The one thing that stood out to me was the class structure that was so visible on this ship. The upper class on the upper deck and the working class below. Apart from that, it was the special telephone that was used to call the Queen and Duke that had me smiling as well as the Phantom Rolls Royce they had aboard. I wish I could remember the statistics more, but the crew on board was large and there was even a mini hospital too. But even larger than that was the laundry room. Also, all the clocks were stopped at 3:02…not sure if it was AM or PM or even what the significance is behind this. But it was an interesting detail.
Apparently the Queen cried at the decommissioning ceremony attended by senior royals. Did she shed any tears for Di? Anyway, what’s your favourite royal attraction?
