Royal Yacht Britania - then home

22 May 2006
Next day, we went down to the port at Leith and took the tour of the retired and refitted Royal Yacht Britannia. All I can say to you is that the Yacht is bigger than any of the 20 footers I’ve been on and done out in more opulent style. Liz and Phil both had separate rooms with single beds. In fact, the only double, perhaps Queen sized bed (ha ha) was the one Charlie brought in for his honeymoon with Diana.

And so folks, it is with some confidence that I can say that I have seen the bed where Charlie bonked Di. I was prevented from testing the springs as various security measures such as locked doors kept cretins like me from bouncing on the bed.

After concluding the tour, we headed back into the City and went up to the Castle once more to the Royal Mile. Here we took one of the walking tours of the city. I find these tours wonderfully informative. There was a particular point where our guide was pointing out the place where the scaffolding that hung many a Scottish rebel was when a youth scragged out his throat a big swag of spittle depositing it near us. It was one of those experiences where all of us on the walk verbalized or at least thought ‘You dirty little turd.’ It turns out that it is a Scottish custom to spit on this one particular stone, a spit at authority or authoritarian control and it is quite legal to spit at this spot. Our guide doubted that the youth knew the meaning or symbolism of his actions.

As we walked off, I pondered whether I should drop some Aussie spittle on that spot but Kaz was eyeing me to ensure decorum was maintained!

Our tour was quite interesting but the weather so cold and miserable and the walking bit so slow that by the time we finished, the two of us were as cold as corpses. We ventured off to find warm lodgings and food. We found such a place in the Newtown area and concluded our visit to Edinburgh.

Homeward Bound
The 23rd of May saw us make the drive back through Glasgow and onto Prestwich airport where we caught our return flight. Our trip back was uneventful and we were glad to sleep once more in our comfy, warm bed in rainy old Surrey