Queens cortège 6 hour journey

[Dodie66]

I’m just wondering how they do a 6 hour journey. Do they have stops for loo breaks? Do they change drivers.?

@Royalistforaday
It is absolutely beautiful where you live.
Even my 9 year old pulled herself away from YouTube to say how stunning Scotland looks.

It was - but the buglers left a little to be desired, I thought.

The Royal Company of Archers have a lovely livery, if that's the word.

What a time for Sophie Raworth to be losing her voice ...

It looks etched into the glass.

People will wnat to know anyways.

There is a planned stop at Brechin castle centre where they might switch drivers and will have access to toilets.

Excellent trumpeter at the Northern Ireland proclamation, though.

I wondered who was in the little hatchback travelling at position 14 or 15 or so in the cortege. Rather funny to see it following the huge black Range Rovers, police cars and spare hearse - almost as if it was a housekeeper who had accidentally got into the line of cars exiting Balmoral and couldn't work out how to get out once the number was slapped on the windscreen...

It has amused me a little because there have been comments from friends and people on mn expressing surprise that Scotland is a) large and b) beautiful.

I'm English but went to university in Scotland and have lots of friends and family there and visit multiple times a year and I absolutely love it. It seems to be a genuine surprise to some people that Edinburgh is 100s of miles from the highlands and that the highlands have amazing scenery.....

The map of the route on the BBC website shows the cortege going out to Aberdeen, down the coast and to Edinburgh via Perth and Dundee, which lengthens the journey somewhat. Add in 'ceremonial speed' and a couple of rest breaks and that probably explains why it's taking so long.

What do they do when fuelling the royal cars for everyday use? Do they just use normal petrol stations, figuring that it will just look like any old posh car with an anonymous servant filling it, or do they have their own petrol stations?

Back to hearses, I know that some funeral directors have their own pumps, which is presumably less undignified than queueing at Morrisons and waiting whilst the driver in front takes ages stocking up on snacks and going to the toilet.

What's the ambulance for? in case of issues in the crowds?

I wonder what the other royals at Balmoral are doing now, if it's only Princess Anne and her husband in the procession.

Andrew, Edward, Sophie, Beatrice, Eugenie, Zara and Peter presumably all still there. Maybe Louise. Not sure James ever was there as he's never been mentioned (still school age I guess, so complicated perhaps). Don't think any of the great grandchildren went up.

Some of the family will be at the ceremonies in Edinburgh tonight and tomorrow I think? I'm sure further services in the coming days too, and it says some of the royal family will attend the various events.

I guess this is loo break time?

It seems to be a genuine surprise to some people that Edinburgh is 100s of miles from the highlands

Not quite, it's almost exactly 100 miles from Balmoral. But Scotland is 40% of the area of 'something' (not sure which, mainland Britain, or the UK) but nearly half, anyway.

Plus due to the narrow, mainly single carriageway roads, it takes quite a long time to travel between places.

I've driven from Northern England to the Central Belt area many times, and find the Scottish Borders area also spectacular, especially on the M6/M74 side. But on the way back, it does seem like I'm on the road for ages and am still in Scotland.

There's a ceremonial goat at the Welsh proclamation!

Some of the other royals have gone on ahead to Edinburgh, Zara and Eugenie at least , possibly to be reunited with their young dc.

Do you think there is one person who is ultimately "in charge" of the entire operation? Makes all the final decisions and is in charge of appointing all the people to be in charge of the various different departments/aspects and co-ordinating between all those 'top' people? What a job. Each department will have layers of command too of course, but I wonder if there's one person/committee right at the top who's responsible for it all.

I wonder also when invitations to all the world leaders went out - the commentators on the news add little updates as they get them about who has said they are or are not coming, and although most of them would obviously know they'd be invited as the protocol pretty much dictates it, it sometimes sounds a little premature. Or you wonder if they'd have been invited. One annoucement from the kremlin said that Putin would not be attending, and I thought it was a little presumptuous of anyone to assume he'd be invited!!

I am not in UK at the moment so can't watch BBC coverage. Sky News Live has proclamations wall to wall so I missed the cortege. It will probably be covered on Sky live later.

Anyway, does anyone know the route the cortege will take to Edinburgh? I am reading here of the spectacular scenery en route, and would like to have a look on Google Maps. Thanks.

Dear Anne,

All of mumsent is concerned about your loo access 🤣.

It was Anne who was worrying me too! I know I couldn’t go for 6 hours without a pit stop.

I'm part of the contingency planning group for a large organisation (as a minion with peripheral role!) and the plans are reviewed regularly for all the senior royals. Even with careful forward planning, we're now on daily calls reviewing and double checking to ensure planned processes are kicking in and that any impacts are mitigated, the result being -hopefully- a well delivered operation from the public perspective.

However, every so often the Daily Fecking Fail will run a story about the government bodies planning the Queens'/royal deaths and trying to put a negative and disrespectful slant on it - I dont get it, it would be more of a story if preparations were not in place! Can you imagine, Thursday afternoon a bunch of people on a Teams call saying 'oh the Queen has passed, what do we do now'?

It doesn't help that the media treat Scotland (and Wales and NI) as though it's just one region, rather than a whole nation. How often do you hear of "Sandra from Birmingham, Richard from Buckinghamshire, Tony from Derbyshire, Sarah from Manchester and Frank from Scotland"?

My uncle was a sales rep travelling the Highlands for a while. His bosses had great difficulty grasping how long it was going to take him to get from prospect to prospect, because if you glanced at a map and assumed he could go more or less as the crow flies, it didn't look too bad, but of course you can't go as the crow flies. Mountains, winding roads, hairpin bends, single track roads with passing places, etc etc.

Aberdeen to Dundee, across to Perth then on to edinburgh. All on the main motorways/duel carriage ways I believe.

If any member of the Royal Family has trained herself to go for up to 24 hours without a loo break, it's Princess Anne.

Similarly, if the only option is behind a hedge somewhere just outside Berwick, with just an old McDonalds serviette she found in the glove box, that will probably also be fine. Let's just stick to the the bloody schedule, come on, come on, tick tock.

WeBuiltThisBuffetOnSausageRoll - it’s annoying. Even Mn does it in their competitions etc - England is divided into numerous regions and all Scotland’s regions are ‘Scotland’ 😆