When we heard that the decommissioned royal yacht, the Britannia, was on display in Leith near Edinburgh, DH was not enthused about doing a tour of it. He still tells the story of when we went to see the Queen Mary in Long Beach California...and what we found was an uncared for 'hulk' and a pretty pathetic escorted tour, as well as the tour with the audio guides...but it was all so run-down.
But Cath, a fellow Brisbane blogger, visited Britannia a little earlier this year and highly recommended the tour of the ship. So off we went...
It is a very well organised tour; the ship is in immaculate condition and a credit to the group who run it. We used the audio guides and the tour starts on the upper level and you gradually work your way down, level by level right down to the engine room.
In this post I will share photos of the parts of the ship that were the Royals' areas. The Britannia was used as transport for the Royals when they toured the Commonwealth as well as other countries on State Visits. It was also used by the Royal Family for holidays, including honeymoons.
The 'tower' structure in the foreground contains a stairwell with links to each level of the ship. There is also a lift...
The Queen's bedroom...yes a single bed...
The other end of the Queen's bedroom...
The Duke of Edinburgh's bedroom...
The only bedroom on the ship which has a double bed...used by a number of honeymooning royals over the years.
This deck was the private domain of the royals...various games would be played here and there was also a swimming pool that could be erected and used...
This was the royal sun room which led out to their private sun deck in the previous photo.
The walls in the royal sunroom were lined with teak. The white rectangular section on the wall below hid a TV and record player...
The Britannia was a floating palace basically and the Queen would host large state dinners on board when visiting other countries...this is the state dining room. It apparently takes 3 hours to set the table and a ruler is used to measure the distance for placement of cutlery, glassware etc. the various alcoves in this large room contain gifts to the Queen from various countries.
The Queen's office...
Prince Phillip also had an office just across from the Queen's...
This is called the anteroom...
And the anteroom leads into the Royals' drawing room...
So that's a little peep into the lifestyle of the cruising Royals...I will also write a post about the the crew areas and the work areas of the ship.
7 comments:
Great photos. The Queen was upset when the Britannia was mothballed. I can understand that better now.
Great photos Maria. I felt as if I was back there! Ps....the double bed was a recent acquisition. Brought on board by Prince Charles for his honeymoon aboard with Diana.
Cathxx
What a beautiful ship - does seem a waste for it just to sit there. Thanks for the tour! cheers Wendy
Loved your tour, you do have to wonder though if there are too many cushions in the world, don't you.
Another nice tagalong on one of your tours Maria, thank you :D)
A lovely trip through then yacht - thanks - just got to love the row of perfectly placed cushions - I wonder if they have been measured too??
I wouldn't mind to travel on this ship ;)
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