"Fit for a Queen"

One of the reasons for choosing to stay in Leith near the Port, was the chance to see the Royal Yacht Britannia which is berthed there as a tourist attraction. Apparently, at the time of her decommissioning, there was an invitation to those places in Britain willing to give her a suitable home, to submit their plans and show how they would make her available to the public.

Certainly Leith has provided a great venue with a huge shopping centre that allows unlimited free parking for Britannia visitors and provides expansive views over the ship and the water from many of the restaurants and shops. The Britannia staff are helpful and unobtrusive and one lady was standing on the deck offering to take photos for the visitors. This surprised us as most places would choose to have an "official" photographer in this prime spot and try to sell you a memento at a highly inflated price!

It is not hard to imagine why the Queen and the Royal Family enjoyed getting away from their usual routine and staying onboard the "yacht". Although everything in the royal suites is expensive and tasteful, there is an air of homeliness and intimacy that was probably cherished and unusual for people leading such "goldfish bowl" lives in lavish surroundings. This beautiful formal lounge was apparently a great favourite and had everything from a grand piano to all the puzzles and games a family enjoys while on holiday.

Yet the grand State Dining Room provided a setting "fit for a Queen" to entertain important people while on official tours abroard. The Britannia displays a "class" system not only with the lavish royal apartments, but also with the diminishing luxury and appointments in the accommodation for the different ranks of the naval staff on board.

The Captain had a comfortable sitting room, large fancy dining room and a comfortable cabin, while the style and size became less as the ranks decreased.

These living arrangements ranged from cabins shared by just two officers of highest rank after the captain, with a rather fancy group mess and dining room, to dormitaries with sleeping shelves for the lowest ranks and a dining area with plastic chairs and laminex tables.

The Queen and the Duke had comfortable but modest bedrooms and private lounges with a desk and comfortable furniture, but they were not huge or fancy. This picture shows about half the area of the Queen's bedroom which has a connecting door to the Duke's bedroom. We imagine they had solid walls rather than glass panels for stickybeaks like us when the Britannia was in use!!!!

For those who find this technical detail interesting, here is the bridge which had only one chair - the captain was the only one allowed to sit here. It was apparently the technology deficit that forced the decommissioning of the Britannia in the end although everything was still working well.

I must admit,that even for a non technical and only mildly interested person like me, the engines and the entire engine room areas were most impressive in their sparkling cleanliness - you really could eat your dinner off them - as the saying goes - if you were so inclined! Apparently General Swartskoff made the comment after being shown around,"Now I would like to see the real engine room!"

The tour was so comprehensive and so interesting it was 2.30 pm by the time we finished and had coffee and scones for lunch in Debenham's in the Ocean Terminal Shopping Centre. We still had a long way to travel for our final B & B at Wilmslow near Manchester Airport - so it was a little annoying that the road signs only directed traffic right through the heart of the city when the map showed there was a quicker way if only we could have found signs to show us where to go.

Despite our lateness we decided to stop in Lockerbie to visit the Memorial Garden for those killed in the Pan American 747 Bombing on 21st December 1988. We remembered having visited this little known place on our honeymoon in 1964 and it is sad to contemplate the tragic reason for it now being well remembered all over the world.

We tried to ring our Bed & Breakfast but there was no answer so we sent them an email from the over the motorway coffee stop where we stopped for "dinner", telling them it would be 10.00'ish when we arrived. On the front door at 10.00 pm we found a note apologising for having to go to the hospital to be with a sick relative. The door was open and the key and a little map showing places to eat were in an envelope on the hall table along with the direction to go "through the hedge" to the house next door. We breathed a sigh of relief that our latest arrival ever, had not inconvenienced anyone and our final "home" was clean and comfortable.