Since Christine is such a Queen Elizabeth lover, I bought tickets to tour the Royal Yacht Britannia which is docked permanently in Leith. Leith is where our cruise was supposed to have docked, but apparently there are wind turbines being built in the channel near the port entrance, so the cruise ship couldn’t enter the channel. I figured out a way to get to Leith by public transport. The bus stop we needed was right outside our hotel. It was just a little over 40 minutes to get to Ocean Terminal where we could start our Britannia tour.
I must say that the public transit system in Edinburgh is fantastic. Most of the busses are double decker busses and they are plentiful. There is also a great tram system in addition to busses. You can pay your fare by phone app, exact change,prepurchased bus passes, or credit card, so it’s really easy. But have something other than American Express. We’re learning that Amex is not widely accepted, unfortunately.
We enjoyed the bus ride through the city and into the suburbs. Nearly all the buildings are sandstone and the neighborhoods look so stately with rows of sandstone townhouses. We arrived at our destination of Ocean Terminal, but we had a little trouble figuring out where to go. To make matters worse, the cellular connection wasn’t working so I couldn’t use Google maps or get our e-tickets ready. After a little wandering around, we located the entrance into a very large mall and saw signs for the Britannia.
The initial displays about Britannia were really interesting. There were lots of photos of the royal family on the yacht.
The order to build the royal yacht came one day before George VI died in 1952. It then fell to Elizabeth to oversee the building of the yacht. It became very special to her. She had a hand in everything and she wanted the yacht’s interior to look like a country house. I was amazed that it only took a year to build the ship. It was really interesting to note that half the yacht was the royal end, and the other half was the working end. There was a flag pole midship marking the two halves.
Britannia was christened by the Queen in 1953. She sailed over one million miles and visited 135 countries.
The tour of the yacht was self-guided with an audio player. I thought the layout of the tour and the audio description of each of about 30 stops was really good.
The Admiral’s suite and the officer quarters were nearly as nice as the royal’s residence.
We moved through the levels of working crew, from the Admiral’s quarters, officers’ rooms, petty officers lounge, to working crew areas. No question there was a hierarchy of comfort.
Then on to the royal residence. Surprisingly, the bedrooms were kind of small. The Queen and Prince Phillip had separate bedrooms with only a twin bed in each.
The only double bed on the yacht was in the bedroom that Charles and Diana slept. Charles requested the double bed after he married Diana.
The state dining room was what you’d expect. It was really beautiful and you could visualize a state dinner with all sorts of dignitaries around the table. The Reagans and the Clintons both were guests on the royal yacht.
The Queen’s sitting room was where she worked while on the yacht.
The drawing room was where the royals entertained guests or spent time together when not entertaining. This room was the Queen’s wish to look like a country home.
There were some photos of the Queen’s Rolls Royce being lifted onto the yacht. Not only did they take a vehicle, but they also took what they called the barge, the small boat used to ferry the Queen from the yacht to the shore when anchored and not docked.
In December, 1997, the royal yacht was decommissioned. The reason for decommissioning was money. In 1994, the government refused to foot the bill for the needed retrofitting of the yacht. The next government refused to pay for a new royal yacht at all. Queen Elizabeth last stepped off the yacht at 3:01 on December 11, 1997. All the clocks on Britannia are stopped at 3:01, memorializing the Queen’s last departure. The decommissioning ceremony was very sad for the royal family and crew. Queen Elizabeth even shed a tear.
Britannia is now under the care of the Royal Yacht Britannia Trust. It will preserve the royal yacht and maintain it as a tourist attraction. It really is quite educational, no matter how you feel about the royals. And it was really touching to learn how much Queen Elizabeth loved Britannia.
After our tour, we got a bite to eat in the big mall nearby. I had intended to then retrace our steps on the bus back to the hotel. That didn’t go as planned and I got frustrated in not being able to find the bus stop we needed. I use Google maps all the time for driving, but I find it very hard to use for walking. At any rate, after wandering around trying to find the bus stop, I finally ordered an Uber. It took quite a while for it to show up. But, all’s well that ends well. We rode back in comfort to our hotel.
For dinner, we went down to the Lebanese restaurant downstairs, Sofia’s, and had a delicious dinner. We ordered mezze for 2 and some lamb borek. It was so good! The hummus was the best we’ve ever had. And then it was back to the room for the remainder of the evening. One more day in Edinburgh and then Monday we fly to NYC. Tomorrow, we’re going to. . . . wait for it. . . . the Royal Botanic Gardens.