The Queen arrives in Edinburgh ahead of Holyrood Week on Friday and was all smiles as she pulled into Edinburgh train station.
The 90-year-old royal was greeted with a bouquet of flowers upon her arrival and her aides carried a hefty amount of luggage off the train for her.
Clearly, the monarch doesn’t travel light; there were boxes and boxes of clothes and hats, three umbrellas – including two clear ones – and her own branded red suitcases.
One man was also seen carrying what appeared to be a box of Indian fruits emblazoned with ‘Bilawal House Karachi’.
There were plenty of hat boxes and many had bright yellow tags that read ‘The Queen’s floor’, whilst other items – including suit carriers – had tags reading ‘Hairdresser’s floor’.
According to the royal website, the Queen spends a week visiting various regions in Scotland every year. Whilst there, she meets with citizens from all walks of life and hosts thousands at the Palace of Holyrood house in recognition of their good work.
Known in Scotland as ‘Royal Week’, and to others as ‘Holyrood Week’, these visits celebrate Scottish culture, achievement and community.
Her first port of call will be the Holyrood Palace with the Ceremony of the Keys. The Queen is welcomed into the city of Edinburgh by Lord Provost, who offers her the keys to the city.
There is also an Investiture during the week, which takes place in the Great Gallery at the Palace of Holyrood house, in the centre of Edinburgh. This special service recognises Scottish residents who have made a significant contribution to their society. Recent recipients have included TV presenter Lorraine Kelly, OBE, and Emeritus Professor of Theoretical Physics, Peter Higgs, who was made a Member of the Order of the Companions of Honour.
There will also be a garden party where the Queen will welcome 8,000 people from all walks of Scottish life to spend a relaxed afternoon with her in the beautiful grounds of the Palace.
The Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh proceed down avenues, speaking to a random selection of guests. The party is accompanied by music from regimental bands and The Royal Scottish Pipers Society.
These avenues, and the ‘Grand Circle’, where The Queen and The Duke of Edinburgh reconvene, are created by The Royal Company of Archers, who are The Queen’s official bodyguards in Scotland. Since 1822 the Company has been available for duty to The Sovereign anywhere in Scotland.
Aside from these planned events, the Queen will also undertake a number of regional Scottish engagements which vary from year to year. In recent years she has visited the housing development for disabled veterans; opened a Technology and Innovation Centre at The University of Strathclyde; and visited the Royal Hospital for Sick Children in Glasgow.
The Queen also attended a moving service at Westminster Abbey to pay tribute to the soldiers who lost their lives in the Battle of the Somme 100 years ago.
The Queen took the first post in an overnight vigil held at the Grave of the Unknown Warrior, honouring the unknown dead of the First World War.
Veterans, servicemen and members of the public gathered across the country to observe two minutes’ silence, marking the moment whistles were blown and some 120,000 men went ‘over the top’ on the first day of the battle – the bloodiest single day in British military history.
Pipes played out over the Lochnagar crater near the French village of La Boiselle, which marks the site where a mine was detonated in the first hours of the campaign. Paper poppy petals were released into the crater, representing the thousands who made the ultimate sacrifice for their country.
In France, the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge were joined by Prince Harry for a vigil at the Thiepval Memorial, where the 70,000 British and Commonwealth soldiers with no known grave are commemorated.
Meanwhile, Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari has criticised a British tabloid for claiming that a gift he sent to sent to Queen Elizabeth were ‘Indian fruits’.
Bilawal hit back at the tabloid on Twitter saying that the Royal Family loves his mangoes which are grown at his farm. He said that the mangoes are Pakistani and much better than Indian mangoes.
The @RoyalFamily clearly likes my mangoes.So pleased! Ps @DailyMailUK it’s Pakistani not Indian. Ours r obvs better. https://t.co/gOP3NnTpgT
— BilawalBhuttoZardari (@BBhuttoZardari) 2 July 2016
His sister, Bakhtawar Bhutto also mocked the tabloid saying that Karachi is in Pakistan not India, and that they were Sindhri mangoes grown only in Sindh region.
