After a good nights sleep I was ready for breakfast. The hotel we were staying in didnt provide breakfast, but had a deal with the adjacent pub, so we headed there. I was rather surprised at how busy the pub was as most of the tables were taken. We were shown to a table and given menus to peruse. I opted for the Eggs Royale. It didnt take long for our drinks to turn up, but we waited about 50 minutes for the food. I know the pub was quite busy, but most people appeared to have already eaten. One poor couple ended up having to cancel their order. I did really enjoy my meal when it did arrive, but I wish there had been some salad or something with it as the Eggs Royale looked a bit lonely on the plate.
We headed to the bus stop to get the bus out to Ocean Terminal in Leith as we were visiting the Royal Yacht Britannia. We took bus no. 35 from opposite the National Museum of Scotland. The journey didnt take too long, about minutes and it was nice to see more of the city and also a
bit of Leith. I would like back and spend some time in Leith. Where the bus dropped us, near the Ocean Terminal, was a bit of a building site. We made our way to the Ocean Terminal shopping mall and followed the signs up to the entrance for the Royal Yacht Britannia. I think pretty much everybody must get a shock as the mall is pretty dead, but when you get upstairs and closer to the entrance for the yacht, there was a rather large queue. I wasnt expecting to see that many people there. Although the queue was long, it moved quickly and the check in was painless. As you make your way around to yacht, there are a lot of displays and information to read, but due to the queue and wanting to keep moving, we skimmed over most of it. It was funny to look at the pictures of old royal vessels as some centuries ago were tiny and not grand at all.
You could either download the audio tour to your phone or get a handset to listen to it on, which we did. After getting those we made our way out to
the yacht. The Royal Yacht Britannia was Queen Elizabeth IIs royal yacht in service from 1954 until it was in 1997. During its service, the yacht travelled more than one million nautical miles. In 1994, it was decided that the yacht would be due to high costs of refurbishment and it is kind of came full circle as it came to rest in Leith as it was built in Scotland in Clydebank, Dunbartonshire. We started up on the top deck in the bridge. I know none of the technical terms for stuff and cant remember much from the audio guide. I think, if I remember correctly, that the captain didnt originally steer from up here, but was down below on the next level in the wheelhouse. So the captain/yachtsmen were guided by orders that travelled down voice pipes from the bridge. From here we headed out and had a walk around the outside. I liked the views even if there wasnt too much to see. The area is very flat and there were some new fancy looking apartments being built in one direction.
the years, there were Vice Admirals, Rear Admirals, and lastly a Commodore that were in charge, these men were all flag officers, which is a very senior rank and shows the importance of being the Commanding Officer of Britannia. The Admirals Quarters was pretty nice. The sitting room was large and set out for entertaining. There was also a cute little kitchen. We emerged outside again and as we walked along we passed a Land Rover. I presume it was used by the Royal Family when they docked. Next, we came to the Verandah Deck, which is where the Royal Family relaxed in private. The deck was pretty large and there was already quite a queue forming to visit the tea room on the Royal Deck above. The Royal Deck is where the Royal Family used to entertain and play games. I had quite fancied having either afternoon tea or coffee and a cake up there, but I was still too stuffed from breakfast we thought about going after wed finished our tour of the ship, but we were still too full then.
