Queen in Town for Virginia Anniversary
highhopes
Posts: 1,358MI6 Agent
Seeing these stories reminded me of a recent thread about the U.K.'s birthday, so I thought our members from across the pond would get a kick out of them.
It's been said before, and I think it really is true: for a people that made such a show of breaking with a monarchy, no one goes nuttier over royalty than Americans.
Thousands await Queen's Virginia visit
Associated Press
Queen Elizabeth II and her husband, Prince Philip, will arrive in Virginia today ahead of ceremonies to mark the 400th anniversary of the Jamestown colony. The queen is to address Virginia's General Assembly and meet with survivors of last month's massacre at Virginia Tech.
Thousands of people are expected to jam Capitol Square for a glimpse of the royal couple.
Terry O'Neill was just a wee lad from Liverpool the last time he got within a few feet of Queen Elizabeth II. Years later, the burly owner of the Beatles-influenced Penny Lane Pub in Richmond plans to have a second brush with English royalty on Thursday — with a little help from his friends.
"I left England to get away from her and what does she do? She follows me over here," O'Neill, 66, joked in the thick Liverpudlian brogue of his youth with Penny Lane's lunch crowd Wednesday.
Thanks to Gov. Timothy M. Kaine, a former Richmond mayor and occasional Penny Lane patron, the O'Neills have front-row access for the queen's 200-yard "walkabout" from the Executive Mansion to the Capitol's columned south portico.
"Governor Kaine called me and asked if I'd like to be on the queen's route. I asked him if he was joking," O'Neill said. "My wife has been out all day trying to buy the proper hat."
In Richmond, the queen was to address Virginia's General Assembly and meet 100-year-old civil rights lawyer Oliver W. Hill Sr., whose litigation helped cause the 1954 Supreme Court decision ending racial segregation in public schools.
She also plans to have a private audience with survivors of last month's massacre at Virginia Tech and families of some of the 32 who were slain.
On Thursday evening, the queen was expected to take a horse-drawn carriage through Colonial Williamsburg, Virginia's capital until then-Gov. Thomas Jefferson and the legislature fled to Richmond to elude British capture in the Revolutionary War.
On Friday, she is to tour the site where, 400 years ago, Jamestown became the first permanent English settlement in America. The royal couple are due at the Kentucky Derby on Saturday and will visit President Bush in Washington next week.
She also will visit NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center and the National World War II Memorial in Washington before heading home on Tuesday.
Richmond officials have spent days frantically preparing for their first royal visit.
British, U.S. and state security teams began securing Capitol Square and streets around it Wednesday while work crews erected video screens the size of stadium scoreboards so the masses outside will be able to see the queen's speech to a joint session of the Senate and House of Delegates.
For much of Richmond's downtown work force, the queen's visit means a day off, and many will spend it on the Capitol's sloping South Lawn before her mid-afternoon arrival listening to musical acts as diverse as jazz ensembles, a marching band and Grammy-winning bluegrass legend Ralph Stanley.
In the former Confederate capital, a favored venue for history buffs, Union Jack flags sprouted everywhere this week and business began picking up. O'Neill said Virginia is learning what Londoners have always known: Britain's royals create big tourism bucks.
"We're running specials on cottage pie, bangers 'n' mash, fish and chips," said O'Neill, whose Tudor-themed bar is the region's foremost monument to the Beatles and Britain. "You'd think the queen was going to walk in here tomorrow and say `Party of four, please.'"
Across downtown, the River City Diner and its hard-partying younger clientele planned to mark the day with the alcohol-rich "Royal Cape Shooter." A large sign beckoned Her Majesty with the invitation, "QUEEN EATS FOR FREE."
State officials, however, took pains to steer the royal entourage clear of the juncture of Main and 15th streets a few blocks from the Capitol. There, two stories high and covering the outside brick wall of a strip club, is a fading black-and-white painting of her late daughter-in-law, Princess Diana.
Crowd assembling for queen's visit
Joe Rogalsky, The Examiner
WASHINGTON -
Hundreds of people lined up this morning outside the gates of Capitol Square in Richmond today so they could be in a good position to see Queen Elizabeth II and her husband, Prince Philip, as they begin their United States visit with a tour the historic grounds.
The royal couple will not arrive until 3:30 p.m., but with a large crowd expected, security checks to get through and musical entertainment, royal watchers did not mind spending hours waiting for the visit.
"I wouldn't miss this for anything," said Joan Mazzo, who lives near Fredericksburg. "I thought about camping out here last night, but I decided to get here around 8 a.m. instead. This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. I can't wait."
Cloudy skies and occasional rain showers may have kept some potential spectators at home, however.
"I hope it won't rain too much, just enough to keep people cool," Gov. Tim Kaine told reporters this morning.
Many people were hurriedly studying the rules of royal etiquette so as not to offend the royal couple. Kaine, who will be spending a lot of time with Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip today and Friday, said he is focusing on basic rules rather than memorizing every intricacy. He is trying to curb his "natural tendency to be touchy feely" because protocol dictates that people in the queen's presence should make very little physical contact with Her Majesty.
"The main rule is just to be welcoming," the governor added.
Speaking more seriously, Kaine said the queen's two-day visit to Virginia will include a "private communication between her and the Virginia Tech community, where she will express her support" in the wake of the April 16 rampage. Kaine said Buckingham Palace has been looking for a way for the queen to honor the 32 students and faculty members killed by a lone gunman in the deadliest rampage on an American campus. The event is not open to the public or media.
Musicians from across Virginia will entertain the Capitol Square crowd during the two and a half hours leading up to the queen's arrival. Kaine appeared before reporters this morning wearing a navy blue blazer and a white golf shirt, attire he said was suitable for meeting the musical acts but not for welcoming the queen.
"After I introduce the bands I will change into something more formal," Kaine said.
While Virginia played a key role in the American revolution, the state's legislators are fond of the commonwealth's colonial past and historic ties to England. They frequently point out with much pride that Virginia's General Assembly is the oldest, continuously meeting law-making body in the world because the legislature's roots go back to the colonial House of Burgesses that first met in 1619 in Jamestown. The state is spending millions on this year's celebration of Jamestown's 400th anniversary, which is the reason for the queen's visit.
Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip are scheduled to land at Richmond International Airport at 3 p.m. and arrive in Capitol Square about 30 minutes later. After a brief reception with Kaine, his wife, other family members and former governors, Her Majesty will spend 20 minutes touring the Capitol grounds before meeting the chiefs of the eight Virginia Indian tribes and watch a dance performance on the Capitol's South Portico. Then she will enter the historic Capitol, which was designed by Thomas Jefferson in 1785 and recently underwent a $105 million refurbishment and expansion.
Inside Mr. Jefferson's Capitol, the queen will meet with a group of Richmond elementary school students and discuss the building's history and then walk into the House of Delegates' chamber to address a joint session of Virginia's General Assembly. After the speech she will depart for Williamsburg, which she visited shortly after assuming the throne to make Jamestown's 350th anniversary in 1957.
It's been said before, and I think it really is true: for a people that made such a show of breaking with a monarchy, no one goes nuttier over royalty than Americans.
Thousands await Queen's Virginia visit
Associated Press
Queen Elizabeth II and her husband, Prince Philip, will arrive in Virginia today ahead of ceremonies to mark the 400th anniversary of the Jamestown colony. The queen is to address Virginia's General Assembly and meet with survivors of last month's massacre at Virginia Tech.
Thousands of people are expected to jam Capitol Square for a glimpse of the royal couple.
Terry O'Neill was just a wee lad from Liverpool the last time he got within a few feet of Queen Elizabeth II. Years later, the burly owner of the Beatles-influenced Penny Lane Pub in Richmond plans to have a second brush with English royalty on Thursday — with a little help from his friends.
"I left England to get away from her and what does she do? She follows me over here," O'Neill, 66, joked in the thick Liverpudlian brogue of his youth with Penny Lane's lunch crowd Wednesday.
Thanks to Gov. Timothy M. Kaine, a former Richmond mayor and occasional Penny Lane patron, the O'Neills have front-row access for the queen's 200-yard "walkabout" from the Executive Mansion to the Capitol's columned south portico.
"Governor Kaine called me and asked if I'd like to be on the queen's route. I asked him if he was joking," O'Neill said. "My wife has been out all day trying to buy the proper hat."
In Richmond, the queen was to address Virginia's General Assembly and meet 100-year-old civil rights lawyer Oliver W. Hill Sr., whose litigation helped cause the 1954 Supreme Court decision ending racial segregation in public schools.
She also plans to have a private audience with survivors of last month's massacre at Virginia Tech and families of some of the 32 who were slain.
On Thursday evening, the queen was expected to take a horse-drawn carriage through Colonial Williamsburg, Virginia's capital until then-Gov. Thomas Jefferson and the legislature fled to Richmond to elude British capture in the Revolutionary War.
On Friday, she is to tour the site where, 400 years ago, Jamestown became the first permanent English settlement in America. The royal couple are due at the Kentucky Derby on Saturday and will visit President Bush in Washington next week.
She also will visit NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center and the National World War II Memorial in Washington before heading home on Tuesday.
Richmond officials have spent days frantically preparing for their first royal visit.
British, U.S. and state security teams began securing Capitol Square and streets around it Wednesday while work crews erected video screens the size of stadium scoreboards so the masses outside will be able to see the queen's speech to a joint session of the Senate and House of Delegates.
For much of Richmond's downtown work force, the queen's visit means a day off, and many will spend it on the Capitol's sloping South Lawn before her mid-afternoon arrival listening to musical acts as diverse as jazz ensembles, a marching band and Grammy-winning bluegrass legend Ralph Stanley.
In the former Confederate capital, a favored venue for history buffs, Union Jack flags sprouted everywhere this week and business began picking up. O'Neill said Virginia is learning what Londoners have always known: Britain's royals create big tourism bucks.
"We're running specials on cottage pie, bangers 'n' mash, fish and chips," said O'Neill, whose Tudor-themed bar is the region's foremost monument to the Beatles and Britain. "You'd think the queen was going to walk in here tomorrow and say `Party of four, please.'"
Across downtown, the River City Diner and its hard-partying younger clientele planned to mark the day with the alcohol-rich "Royal Cape Shooter." A large sign beckoned Her Majesty with the invitation, "QUEEN EATS FOR FREE."
State officials, however, took pains to steer the royal entourage clear of the juncture of Main and 15th streets a few blocks from the Capitol. There, two stories high and covering the outside brick wall of a strip club, is a fading black-and-white painting of her late daughter-in-law, Princess Diana.
Crowd assembling for queen's visit
Joe Rogalsky, The Examiner
WASHINGTON -
Hundreds of people lined up this morning outside the gates of Capitol Square in Richmond today so they could be in a good position to see Queen Elizabeth II and her husband, Prince Philip, as they begin their United States visit with a tour the historic grounds.
The royal couple will not arrive until 3:30 p.m., but with a large crowd expected, security checks to get through and musical entertainment, royal watchers did not mind spending hours waiting for the visit.
"I wouldn't miss this for anything," said Joan Mazzo, who lives near Fredericksburg. "I thought about camping out here last night, but I decided to get here around 8 a.m. instead. This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. I can't wait."
Cloudy skies and occasional rain showers may have kept some potential spectators at home, however.
"I hope it won't rain too much, just enough to keep people cool," Gov. Tim Kaine told reporters this morning.
Many people were hurriedly studying the rules of royal etiquette so as not to offend the royal couple. Kaine, who will be spending a lot of time with Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip today and Friday, said he is focusing on basic rules rather than memorizing every intricacy. He is trying to curb his "natural tendency to be touchy feely" because protocol dictates that people in the queen's presence should make very little physical contact with Her Majesty.
"The main rule is just to be welcoming," the governor added.
Speaking more seriously, Kaine said the queen's two-day visit to Virginia will include a "private communication between her and the Virginia Tech community, where she will express her support" in the wake of the April 16 rampage. Kaine said Buckingham Palace has been looking for a way for the queen to honor the 32 students and faculty members killed by a lone gunman in the deadliest rampage on an American campus. The event is not open to the public or media.
Musicians from across Virginia will entertain the Capitol Square crowd during the two and a half hours leading up to the queen's arrival. Kaine appeared before reporters this morning wearing a navy blue blazer and a white golf shirt, attire he said was suitable for meeting the musical acts but not for welcoming the queen.
"After I introduce the bands I will change into something more formal," Kaine said.
While Virginia played a key role in the American revolution, the state's legislators are fond of the commonwealth's colonial past and historic ties to England. They frequently point out with much pride that Virginia's General Assembly is the oldest, continuously meeting law-making body in the world because the legislature's roots go back to the colonial House of Burgesses that first met in 1619 in Jamestown. The state is spending millions on this year's celebration of Jamestown's 400th anniversary, which is the reason for the queen's visit.
Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip are scheduled to land at Richmond International Airport at 3 p.m. and arrive in Capitol Square about 30 minutes later. After a brief reception with Kaine, his wife, other family members and former governors, Her Majesty will spend 20 minutes touring the Capitol grounds before meeting the chiefs of the eight Virginia Indian tribes and watch a dance performance on the Capitol's South Portico. Then she will enter the historic Capitol, which was designed by Thomas Jefferson in 1785 and recently underwent a $105 million refurbishment and expansion.
Inside Mr. Jefferson's Capitol, the queen will meet with a group of Richmond elementary school students and discuss the building's history and then walk into the House of Delegates' chamber to address a joint session of Virginia's General Assembly. After the speech she will depart for Williamsburg, which she visited shortly after assuming the throne to make Jamestown's 350th anniversary in 1957.
Comments
At the risk of poking my nose where it doesn't belong, from a strictly esthetic point of view, I can't imaging the U.K. without a monarch. It'll be strange enough with a king, which I've never seen in my lifetime.
I think many Americans remain secret Anglophiles (I daresay this is particularly true in the James Bond community), and it's always a bit of a thrill when someone who personifies 'living history' pays a visit.
I hope Her Majesty enjoys her visit {[]
"I am not an entrant in the Shakespeare Stakes." - Ian Fleming
"Screw 'em." - Daniel Craig, The Best James Bond EverTM
Of course, you know the real reason she's there? Kentucky Derby...she likes a go on the old GG's now and then
Weird to see that people have to go through security checks to be on the crowd line to see her there. Security on visits here is nowhere near as strict, and on her summer holidays in Scotland she drives herself into town...
@merseytart
After the Virginia Tech shootings, I'm sure people are a little more nervous than usual in those parts. And of course, it's one thing if something happened to her in the UK, it's another if something happened here. I'm trying to think of the last time a dignitary of the queen's stature was harmed in a foreign land, and all I can come up with is -- Sarajevo 1914. Yikes
I don't think it would quite cause a world war.
When I saw the Queen at the CR premiere the security was very tight, infact unless she was in a tank I don't think it could have been more secure.