Royal Yacht Britannia, Leith, Edinburgh, Scotland - Sadly Her Majesty was not aboard when we visited

Globally we have something that the rest of the world truly envies… our monarchy. The Americans can’t get enough of us and from all over the world the Queen is respected for her dedication and neutrality over the commonwealth.

Its a brand like no other and historians love it too for its many stories of conflicts, power struggles and sovereign story telling. Its a saga like no other.

For hundreds of years, the British monarchy could only travel around the globe by boat until the invention of the aircraft. Until we handed back Hong Kong to the Chinese after the 100-year lease ended, our Queen and members of the Royal Family entertained and travelled on the Royal Yacht Brittania, costs made its future untenable.

Now the Royal yacht is moored in Leith, near Edinburgh, Scotland after travelling over 1,000,000 miles. Here visitors from around the globe come to capture a glimpse of how our Royal Family would travel.

Onboard, you get to see the Queens cabin and private quarters. You see the dining room and entertaining rooms where many meals and drinks were served to guests when docked at ports of call and the crews quarters and everything aboard this fine vessel.

The royal yacht is impressive not least because it was the home to her majesty when at sea, but for what it represented around the globe.

An interesting tidbit of information was that the crew did not dress in uniform when at sea.. the reason? So that members of the Royal Family did not have to constantly salute back. In fact, the crew had to stand still when being passed and keep their eyes looking down.

This vessel represented the UK and all that Britain stood for, and it was because of this that it is the number one attraction today in Scotland.

I personally found the boat interesting but was surprised by what I found onboard. It was somehow less grand than I expected.

We finished our tour aboard by having lunch in the upper deck dining room.