The Queen’s Diamond Jubilee celebrations, which marked the 60th anniversary of Queen Elizabeth’s accession to the throne way back in 1952, saw myriad events taking place all across the globe. There was even a cocktail created especially for the Diamond Jubilee. As part of the celebrations, the Queen and her family sailed on The Spirit of Chartwell, a 64 metre long flotilla, from Battersea to Tower Bridge in June last year. To make it snazzy enough for the Thames river pageant, the boat was renovated and the bill for that came to a whopping $1.5 million!
The boat, to suit its royal guests looks no less than a mansion on water. It has 14 beautiful cabins, a piano bar, an open air deck, a Royal suite, and even a restaurant. Both the interior and the exterior were decorated with red, gold and purple, apparently the colors used in the royal barges belonging to the 17th and 18th century. It took six months of hard work to make it ready for the royal family’s trip. Strangely however, it was stripped off just days after the pageant.
It was then bought by a Phillip Morrell who planned to use The Spirit of Chartwell for a luxury cruise sailing between Kent and Surrey on the Thames. For certain reasons that plan did not pan out and the flotilla was bought by Douro Azul, a Portuguese river cruise company. Instead of the Thames, it will now sail on the Douro River that crosses near the city of Porto, and will carry passengers for tours that will cost between $550 for two nights and $3200 for seven nights. A nice opportunity to travel like royalty. Another interesting item associated with the Queens previous jubilee is the Geoffrey Parker Chess Set brought out for her Silver Jubilee (their most expensive chess set till date). The chess set costs almost $80,000!
Via: Metro
