The Royal Yacht Britannia!

Yesterday we travelled down to the Ocean Terminal (the Port of Leith) about 10-15 minute walk from our flat, to go see The Royal Yacht Britannia!!! It was owned by the Royal Family and used to travel all over the world once every year until the 80s, when it took it's last voyage and came to dock perminantly at the Port of Leith.

It was absolutely amazing. It's a huge and beautiful boat that accomodated the 45 members of the Royal Family plus roughly 400 crew members on board at all times. The ship had a upper level which was the sunning deck, then the next level which was the apartments for the admiral (the captain) and for the Royal Family, (apparently the Queen and the Duke sleep in different rooms, and it included the room that Prince Charles and Princess Diana used on their honeymoon....it had a double bed!) the next level down was the kitchens, the Royal living room and studies for the Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh (Prince Philip). The next level had the formal dining room (which was used to entertain people like Nelson Mandela, President Clinton, Margaret Thatcher, Winston Churchill, etc) and the kitchens (which they still use today.) Apparently important dinners are still held on Britannia for those who are rich enough to rent it out. On the lower floor, there was the sleeping quarters for all the crew and their entertainment areas. This floor also included the massive laundry room and sick bay. Finally the lowest desk was encompassed by the massive and beautiful engine room.

The entire ship was not decorated elaborately as we thought it would be, but is furnished more like a summer cottage....which was apparently the intent of the Queen, who wanted a retreat when she was on board. However, as far as the crew goes, they were still required to act formally. The upper decks had to be scrubbed every day in the morning with sea water before 8 am, so that all work on the ship had to be done before the Royal Family rose. If a member of the Royal Family happened to come by during this time, the crew member would have to stop working, and stand at attention without saying a word until the Royal had left. However, the Queen preferred that on the sun deck (the area where the Royal Family relaxed outside) that the crew take off their hats, which would put them 'out of uniform' so that the Family didn't always have to return salutes up here. We thought this was pretty crazy.

However, the yacht was beautiful, and well worth a visit. The coolest thing about the attractions here are that once you pay to enter them once, you now have free entry for a year....which doesn't benefit the majority of tourists, but benefits us huge!