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.?

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

Presumably everybody in the cars also has a bladder and bowels?! Granted, an unknown chauffeur or footman could probably slip away unnoticed much more easily than Anne could!

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
We're in the Borders (just) I do the journey to Herts and back very regularly. I'm always by a group of trees on the hill next to the M74 that looks exactly like a cock and balls.

It's the Duke of Norfolk who oversees the entire logistics of all ceremonial events.

The Duke of Norfolk (in name, anyway). For over 300 years the Duke of Norfolk has automatically also been the Earl Marshall. I have no idea what they do the rest of the time, but the Earl Marshall has to organise the funeral of the monarch and the coronation of the new monarch. Busy year to come! I read that there is a suite of rooms kept in readiness for the EM to use if necessary at Buckingham Palace. At the time of George VI's death the rooms were being re-decorated. He was found dead in his bed in the morning and by the end of the afternoon the re-decoration was complete and the then Duke was able to move in.

My friend is travelling from Aberdeen today to England and set off early so they weren’t caught behind the queen
Says the dual carriage way is lined with people, cars are in fields and people are on the bridges.

I'm so glad someone else thought of this, wondered if it was just me! Obviously it's been meticulously planned for years, but the level of detail is astounding - as everyone says, you can't drive for 6 hours without a "comfort break" - as many have said, undoubtedly there are spare drivers, etc in the courtege - but even poor Princess Anne is following on - they must have somewhere discreet planned to stop surely?

I firmly believe Princess Anne could do a 6 hour journey without a wee. Woman's a tough bloody nut.

ah thanks for the info about the Duke of Norfolk. I find the logistics of such enormous events really interesting. I know there are thousands of people each co-ordinating their own specific bits, but it's bringing it all together that seems overwhelming and needs so much co-ordination.

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.

Indeed. This reminds me of a thread from a while ago where the OP had been given an experience-type voucher by a family member, but she lived deep in the Highlands - with young DC iirc - and the nearest place she could go for it was in Edinburgh.

It seems to be par for the course that, when things are sold/advertised as having lots of centres around the UK, and so promising that there will be one 'local to you', you'll find that they have 60 centres throughout England, one in Glasgow or Edinburgh, one in Cardiff or Newport and likely none at all in NI.

Nobody would dream of giving somebody in Newcastle a voucher for afternoon tea or paintballing in Exeter ("We checked - they do have a centre in England!") but Scotland is just one little local parish where everybody knows each other.

@ApolloandDaphne

Thanks very much.

That's interesting about the Duke of Norfolk.... but what happens when he dies?

I'll bet it will be some bumbling nephew getting it all wrong with haphazard guesses and unrealistic expectations, with the DoN preparing to spin in his grave at the ironic shoddiness of it all in comparison

Why? That's like saying they should hide the brand of cars they drive in, or not tell anyone where their clothes are made.

The Queen will have chosen that company to do the job, and it will almost certainly have been made public anyway.

Pulling the stickers off the hearse (if they even ARE stickers, our local funeral director has his name and logo scratched into the glass) would make a mess of the window.

I hardly think people will start queuing up to use that company and even if they do it's not going to take any business away from anywhere else - they can only accept a finite number of funerals, and funeral companies are struggling at the moment.

i didnt imagine the loo
i was worried about the petrol, and breaking down!

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

Plus the 'tractor factor' as we called it on a group holiday to Orkney. How much delay would be added on due to being stuck behind a large and/or slow vehicle with no possibility of overtaking.

funeral companies are struggling at the moment.

Are they? I'd have thought they were the one industry that wouldn't be affected by everything going on right now?!

I said to DH when I saw Princess Anne was part of the cortège that I hoped she had a packet of sandwiches and some Frazzles she could furtively pop into her mouth on less populated bits of the route.

Oh yes indeed.
She could probably go for days without food or drink as well.

We did a five hour drive with no loo stops. Just make sure and not drink too much beforehand!

Why is everyone talking about no toilets?

They have a planned stop.

Blimey, you must have had a numb bum

I could do six hours if I'd planned for it - sometimes on a long haul flight I do, nad obviously overnight. But when I then had to get out of the car, it would be very undignified, as the minute I stood up and changed position, I'd be desperate!!

I think people are just speculating what needs or needed to be done about loo breaks adn whether it could have happened without. I'm glad there is somewhere for them to stop. I dn't know if the original plans included the possibilities of the Queen dying in any one of her residences, and the details of what would happen exactly on something like the cortege route, or whether some of this has been decided in the last couple of days. I'm guessing the specific place to stop was only decided recently

For me, a long journey must have a comfort stop or facilities on board. It is mostly fear of NOT having somewhere to go though. You know - if you cannot, you want to!

apparently they will soon go past Glamis castle where her mother's family lived and she spent childhood summers. I wonder if that was considered as a stopping point.

I don't know who owns the various castles along the route though and how easy that would have been to organise.

I know exactly where you mean..

I think funeral companies have less opportunity to upswell than in the past. I recall funerals costing several thousand pounds, a FD locally advertises them for £999.

Given the rate people die must stay roughly the same it's not like you can make a turn through volume.