The Passing of Queen Elizabeth II

[Frelga]

I realize it wasn't the plan, but can she cancel her accommodations? Paris is just a train ride away through the Chunnel, and from there Europe is your oyster.

[RoseMorninStar]

The accommodations (flat in Edinburgh, hotel in London) are non-refundable. They also will be leaving from London so.. I'm not sure she's up to switching gears even if she could. I hope they can make the best of it and that Potter Studio's doesn't cancel/close. They head to Edinburgh (from Newcastle upon Tyne) in the morning.

[Sunsilver]

Here's a detailed review of what is going take place over the next few days:

[Aravar]

Rose,

The Historic Royal Palaces site say they will only be shut on the 19th the day of the Funeral, so Hamton Court is another option to visit.

What sort of things does your daughter like? I'm in the UK an while I don't really know Edinburgh I do know London and its environs.

[RoseMorninStar]

How kind of you Aravar.

They will be taking the train to London on the 15th and staying bankside not far from London Bridge. On the 16th they plan to go to the Harry Potter/Warner Bro's studio and Highgate cemetery. The 17th was to be a tour of Buckingham palace, Royal Mews, changing of the guard, Big Ben, & London Eye. 18th: Tower of London and Potions room. 19th: Westminster Abbey & St. Paul's cathedral. I'm not sure what of that is still on. I wonder if Westminster (the funeral) be open to the public? (based on the video Sunny posted, it seems the mourners will be by invitation).

In Edinburgh she was able to re-book Edinburgh castle tour on a different day and get a different underground tour, so she's pleased with that.

I'm sure she felt overwhelmed waking up to find all sorts of cancellations on her phone, given the time she spent planning the trip. They chose to use public transport/did not rent a car so they thought all of their worries were going to be the rail strike.

An earlier idea had been to take a day tour to Stonehenge which included Oxford, but she decided against that because why go to London & then spend a whole day elsewhere, but perhaps they will revisit that idea.

[Sunsilver]

Wow - here's something I didn't expect! :o Scottish farmers and their tractors line the route of the royal procession as the Queen's coffin travels to Balmoral Castle:

[Sunsilver]

I'm not sure what of that is still on. I wonder if Westminster (the funeral) be open to the public? (based on the video Sunny posted, it seems the mourners will be by invitation).

Yes, the funeral (a week this coming Monday) is invitation only, though of course there will be TV coverage. Beginning on Wednesday, the public will be allowed to pay their respects while the coffin is lying in state at Westminster for four days. Even though the hall will be open 23 hours a day for this, I imagine the lines will be pretty bad. Just look at what's happening today, with people lining the route the coffin took to Scotland!

The U.K. and the Commonwealth really loved their sovereign. In 1959, my family and a large crowd of other people, stood for a long time by the side of the road to catch a fleeting glimpse of the Queen's limousine, as it travelled through our town on its way to the airport. My dad hoisted me on his shoulders, so I could see (I was 5 years old, but still remember it clearly.) The limo was open, despite the weather threatening rain, so we were able to see her clearly. I remember she was wearing a pink dress and hat.

Everything will be shut down on Monday, the day of the funeral, which will be a national day of mourning.

Saw this very poignant picture of Princess Ann, snapped through the window of her limo, which followed the coffin to Balmoral. This is what grief looks like:

[RoseMorninStar]

Edingburgh

[Sunsilver]

This is outside St. Giles, correct?

[RoseMorninStar]

This is outside St. Giles, correct?

I think the Queen is at Holyroodhouse palace and will be moved to St. Giles tomorrow afternoon.
Daughter is staying less than a mile from Holyrood.

I wonder what they do with all of that stuff. Toys, trinkets, money.

[Jude]

Those pictures are at Holyrood Palace.

[Sunsilver]

Money?? Oh my, what does the Royal Family need money for! Wow.

I don't remember what happened with all the flowers after Diana died. I suppose a Google search might answer the question. I hate to think how much time it's going to take to sort that all by hand so nothing valuable gets tossed out! :o

Edit: a Google search found they estimate about 60 million bouquets were left at Kensington Palace in honour of Diana. Various volunteer groups and the Boy and Girl Scouts were given the job of sorting them out:

Following the funeral for Diana - which was attended by over a million people and watched on television by an estimated 2.5 billion people – volunteers had to clean up the floral tributes. According to BBC, members of the Boy Scouts, Girl Scouts, and dozens of volunteer groups sorted the flowers and other gifts left behind by the mourners. The clean-up crew efficiently collected all of the offerings and moved all of the live flowers to various hospitals and nursing homes, while the decaying flowers were used for fertilizer to grow flowers in Kensington Gardens, per CNN. The cleanup of Kensington Palace, Buckingham Palace, and St. James Palace took about five weeks to complete.

Read More: https://www.thelist.com/381889/heres-wh ... paign=clip

[RoseMorninStar]

Another (Edinburgh)

[Alatar]

Rose, I'm definitely in the "glass half full" camp here. Your daughter is in the middle of a moment in history, never to be repeated, with prepaid accommodation and tickets that would be worth multiples of what she paid for them now. She should totally embrace this once in a lifetime opportunity. All the stuff she had planned to do will still be there in five or ten years. This won't.

[Aravar]

I second what Alatar said.

It seems like the Tower will be open except on the 19th. St Paul's is only open for services, as it would seem is Wesminster Abbey.
Your daughter will still be able to see the exteriors, although it will be really busy around there. The lying in state is taking place in Wesminster Hall which is part of the Hosues of Parliament and across the road from the Abbey.

The funeral route will be open for spectators but I expect it will be incredibly busy. I tihnk most things will close down on that day.

Hampton Court is an option as is the old Greenwich Naval College which has the National Maritime Museum and the Old Royal Observatory nearby, which has the prime meridian running though it.

I wouldn't do Stonehenge and Oxford in a day. Personally I find Stonehenge underwhelming anyway, there's much more in Oxford.

[RoseMorninStar]

I would expect those of Great Britain and the commonwealth to feel differently, but 9 days of the Queen's funeral on holiday is just.. I dunno.. probably not the same for young Americans I'm afraid. One or two days, certainly. I realize it may seem .. unbecoming? to be disappointed in all of the change of plans in light of the death of the Queen but after all the planning (and coming off of 3 weeks of very stressful work) she's a bit gobsmacked. Not to mention the crowds and attempting to get from place to place or find somewhere to eat. She will adjust.

If someone from abroad had spent thousands of dollars to come to the US; say New York City to see shows, and then visit Disneyland or Las Vegas only to find everything closed or canceled for 9 of 11 days due to the president's death (I know, it's not the same) I highly doubt 'embrace the moment' would sit very well. That they are seriously in the thick of things on the exact dates is really kinda bizarre. Covid makes it everything more difficult.

Aravar, in the planning stages I told her the same thing in regards to Stonehenge but that is what the tour offered: Stonehenge/Oxford. I talked her out of it saying that with the few days they had they probably would want to spend the time seeing all the sights of London as they are not likely to make it back there. Her work takes her to the corporate headquarters near Newcastle upon Tyne, and at some point Deeside, UK. Next month she'll be in North Carolina, USA and Ringaskiddy, Ireland but her boyfriend will not be with her/it won't be holiday.

[Frelga]

Well, US did have 14 presidents during her reign, of whom I believe 8 have died. Whereas the majority of UK has not seen a royal funeral in their lifetime.

Perhaps she can find someone to take over her accommodations? It seems likely that many people would want to come for the funeral, as Al said.

[RoseMorninStar]

If she'd had a day or two to juggle things she may have opted to see what she could do, but her holiday started, quite literally with the announcement of the Queens death. If she were staying in one place/didn't have such a complicated trip planned she might have been able to switch gears but, I think it would be too complicated. She doesn't know the area(s) well enough, her phone isn't working well over there, etc.. etc.. She's pretty good at rolling with the punches, but I'm sure she's feeling a bit of pressure because this is likely the only time for the foreseeable future her boyfriend/fiancée (?) will be able to accompany her on an overseas trip.

It's just a truly bizarre case of very unfortunate timing that she's going to be in Edinburgh when the Queen is there & then heading to London at the same time -AND the Queen will be at most of the places where they had plans to go (the palaces, cathedrals, etc..), throwing most things off. She thought her greatest issue was going to be the train strike, which has been put on hold. Life says, 'Hold my beer!' Life is weird.

On a sort of unrelated note, 9/11 happened on our anniversary. It's hard to forget the date.

[Frelga]

Can this be true? We expect Russia to do this, but the UK?

[RoseMorninStar]

Frelga It appears so.

Meanwhile, in Edinburgh (palace of Holyrood house -daughter actually took this photo of the Queen's hearse):