Time to visit Edinburgh

One of the best things about Edinburgh is we stayed 2 nights in the Hilton! It was nice not to have to pack everything up in the morning to get on the road again! With our Royal Edinburgh tickets in hand to visit 3 main attractions, Palace at Holyrood House, Royal Britannia Yacht and Edinburgh Castle we venture off to find the bus. None of us has been keen to make decisions this trip on where to go. We end up heading toward HMY Britannia first based solely on the fact the bus to get there was not as busy as the busses to the other locations.

HMY Britannia was the last yacht in a long list of Royal yachts used by British royalty. It was originally commissioned in 1937 when King George VI came into power, but was put on hold due to the expense of WWII. Queen Elizabeth II commissioned the yacht after her coronation and it was christened in 1953. It has been used for 3 honeymoon cruises, Princess Anne and her husband, Prince Charles & Princess Diana, 1981, and the Duke and Duchess of York, 1986. The decor was chosen by the Queen and Prince Phillip and styled in the comfort of a country house. The furnishings all seem to be original and the most recent addition mentioned was a double bed that was installed for Charles and Diana’s honeymoon in 1981. Queen Elizabeth loved using the yacht for personal and state travels and during it’s 44 years of use it traveled the equivalent of 44 trips around the world. After many years of service, the cost of upkeep and the advances in air travel, the yacht was retired and put on display in 1997. The Royal family still owns and uses the yacht for celebrations. It was recently used to celebrate the wedding of Princess Anne’s daughter, Zira Tindall. It’s also available to rent for private & corporate functions should you have tens of thousands of pounds laying around to spend!

After the tour, which took way longer than expected, we of course were famished. Again, we hadn’t been very diligent in eating lunch as we transitioned from one tourist attraction to the next, so we decided to try out the Tea Room on the yacht. Glad we did, because it was just what we needed in a beautifully, elegant environment. We had finger sandwiches, tea cakes and a glass of wine, ahhh- very nice indeed.

Off to Palace of Holyrood House on full stomachs!Read more