DAY 5, May 2, 2013, Thurs Edinburgh: 14°C to -1°C):
 |
| Royal Yacht, Edinburgh |
Took the tube from Hanger lane to
King's Cross changing in between and arrived by 6.30 AM well in time for
our 7 am train.
On the Edinburgh express.
Reached Edinburgh Waverly station by
11.30. Instead of Edinburgh, we had decided to stay a 10 minute ride
away at Edinburgh Park, the Gyle. It was massive savings on room
rate. Bought tickets for the local trains from the machine and
boarded one going west after monitoring the board if the train was
calling at Edinburgh Park, the Gyle.
Reached Edinburgh Park in 10 minutes,
walked to Premier inn right opposite the station and checked in.
Then took the train back to Waverly and
boarded double decker bus no 22 to the Royal Yacht Brittania.
gives good maps and info
We reached ocean terminal and went to
the docks before understanding that the royal yacht office was right
in the ocean terminal mall where our bus ride had terminated. We
went to the 2nd floor of the mall and bought the tickets from the
office and boarded the ship with our audio guide.
Royal Yacht Britannia:
Her Majesty's Yacht Britannia is the
former Royal Yacht of the British monarch, Queen Elizabeth II.
The ship is now permanently moored as
an exhibition ship at Ocean Terminal, Leith, Edinburgh, Scotland.
Royal Yacht Britannia conveyed the
Queen, other members of the Royal Family, and various dignitaries on
696 foreign visits and 272 visits in British waters from 1954. In
this time Britannia steamed 1,087,623 nautical miles (2,014,278 km).
U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower was aboard Britannia for part of
a cruise; Presidents Gerald Ford, Ronald Reagan and Bill Clinton also
were later welcomed aboard the Yacht.
Highlights of the tour of the
five decks that are open to the public include the elegant State Apartments (Queen's Bedroom
(behind a glass wall), and the State Dining Room), the Crew’s Quarters, the Engine Room . The Royal Deck Tea
Room opened in 2009.
Charles and Diana, the Prince and
Princess of Wales, took their honeymoon cruise aboard Britannia in
1981... we saw their room also.
The new Labor government argued that
the expenditure of maintaining could not be justified given the other
pressures on the defence budget (from which it would be funded and
maintained). Britannia was decommissioned on 11 December 1997. The
Queen was reported to have wept at the decommissioning ceremony,
which she attended along with most of the senior members of the Royal
Family.
Beautiful views all round. This is from inside the yacht through a window...
The audio
guide gave loads of info.
Below is Prince Philip's bedroom, yes, the Queen has her own separate bed room!
This was the Queen's room...
This is the only room with a double bed where Charles and Diana spent their honeymoon. The Clintons stayed here on their visit.
Library...
The royals wanted the rooms in country
cottage style— the queen was particular it should not be
ostentatious and rejected luxurious designs.
The drawing
room below—-country cottage style.
The State dining room above where it took 3 hours to set up the table as a ruler was used to precisely measure spacing.
There are 5 decks open for
visitors—-internal staircase here.
Sword from India with gold/ivory case. swords studded with
diamonds and gems; sword cases made of ivory, jade, mother of pearl.
There were grander pieces at Windsor
castle but there no pics were allowed.
small jade and gold dagger case.
Tiara
African ivory.
another tiara and pic of
queen wearing it.
Crew quarters where an admiral, 20 officers and 220 yachtmen lived —bunk beds and lockers
for their uniform.
Bought chocolate fudge from this shop—yummy!
Great idea—presses the whole apparel
at one go.
Rest of the maintenance equipment here
are great as well.
A retired Rolls-Royce Phantom V state
car, owned by the royal family in the 1960s, is on display in the
purpose-built garage aboard Britannia.
The 1936 racing yacht Bloodhound, once
owned by the Queen, is now berthed alongside Britannia. Bloodhound
was one of the most successful ocean-racing yachts ever built and was
also the yacht on which both the Prince of Wales and Princess Royal
learned to sail. The Royal Yacht Britannia Trust bought this racing
royal yacht Bloodhound in early 2010 and she is the centrepiece of an
exhibition focusing on the Royal Family's passion for sailing.
As usual, the gift shop is nice.
After the visit to the royal yacht,
made our way to the National Gallery.
This bagpiper was awesome.
Sir
Walter Scott's memorial in the background.
Edinburgh castle seen from Scottish
National Gallery
Princess garden also seen.
The Scottish National Gallery:
The Scottish National Gallery is the
national art gallery of Scotland. It is located on The Mound in
central Edinburgh, in a neoclassical building opened to the
public in 1859.
It is built in the Greek Doric/Greek
ionic style with its frontal columns facing onto Princes Street.
We took several videos of paintings.
Raphael here...
Impressionism galore...
Degas
Lovely sceneries
Rembrandt self portrait
This painting of an art gallery with so many paintings and sculpture is AWESOME! Antwerp
painter Willem van Haecht (1593-1637) is nothing short of remarkable.
His paintings present so-called ‘kunstkamers’ or art cabinets,
interiors brimming with paintings and other art objects.
Van
Haecht’s painted ‘kunstkamers’ combine reality and fantasy.
Virtually all of the paintings that he depicted in these interiors
were copies of existing works by famous masters. However, they were
never part of the same collection. Van Haecht assembled them together
in his painted world. Moreover, his cabinets are full of narrative
elements referring to the artistic and cultural life in contemporary
Antwerp.
Van
Haecht’s three known paintings are in the Mauritshuis, the
Rubenshuis in Antwerp and in a private collection.
Here's the same painting from the net
Left the national gallery when they closed it down... on
Thursdays, the gallery is supposed to be open till 7 but they closed
at 5.30 that day.
St Giles Cathedral:
We walked to St Giles Cathedral. It is
located at about a third of the way down the Royal Mile which runs
from the Castle to Holyrood Palace.
St Giles Cathedral is the "Mother
Church of Presbyterianism". The cathedral is dedicated to Saint
Giles, who is the patron saint of Edinburgh, as well as of cripples.
Its distinctive crown steeple is a prominent feature.
The main altar.
In 1637, King Charles I. with the
scheme of having all his people of the same religion, ordered a
liturgy, or service book to be used in St Giles. There was an uproar
and revolt and a woman threw a chair at the Bishop. Thus began a
revolt to maintain their religious identity and political freedom.
On the day in 1707 when the
Treaty of Union was signed to merge the Parliament of Scotland
with the Parliament of England and create the Kingdom of Great
Britain, the bells of St. Giles were played to the tune Why
should I be so sad on my wedding day?
In the later 19th century, stained
glass began to be put into the windows which had been largely
clear or plain since the Reformation. This was a radical move in a
Presbyterian church. They were finally allowed on the basis that
they illustrated Bible stories and were an aid to teaching, and not
flippant decoration, or worse still idolatry.
The church was open till 9pm.
We then
walked to Waverly Station, took the train to our hotel ending day 1
in Edinburgh.
The next day with visit to Holyrood palace, Royal Botanic garden is covered here:
http://adventuretrav.blogspot.com/2017/08/uk-trip-report-day-6-edinburgh-holyrood.html
The next day with visit to Holyrood palace, Royal Botanic garden is covered here:
http://adventuretrav.blogspot.com/2017/08/uk-trip-report-day-6-edinburgh-holyrood.html
No comments:
Post a Comment