LONDON — Queen Elizabeth II will soon complete the last leg of her final journey.
The late British monarch’s coffin was scheduled to be flown from Edinburgh, Scotland, back to London on Tuesday and driven in a state hearse to her official home, Buckingham Palace.
Thousands of people have gathered at Buckingham Palace in recent days to pay their respects to the queen, placing bright flower bouquets and handwritten notes outside the gates.
Officials expect a massive crowd to assemble at the palace on Tuesday evening, six days before her state funeral at Westminster Abbey.
The arrival of the queen’s coffin promises to be a closely watched moment in the series of memorial events that have followed the queen’s death Thursday, at age 96.
Elizabeth’s coffin will be flown to the RAF Northolt near London on a Royal Air Force C-17 Globemaster airplane, United Kingdom Air Chief Marshal Mike Wigston told Sky News.
The aircraft has been used to evacuate civilians from Afghanistan and to transport humanitarian aid and weapons to Ukraine following Russia’s invasion, Wigston told the broadcaster.
Tens of thousands of people have already been paying tribute in London as well as in Scotland, where the queen died last week and which has played a central role in her posthumous procession.
Elizabeth was deeply fond of Scotland, especially the Highlands and her family’s Balmoral Castle. Crowds in nearby towns and villages lined the streets Sunday as her hearse meandered its way on a circuitous route to Edinburgh.
In the Scottish capital, the hearse was greeted by packed crowds along the Royal Mile, a steep cobbled street leading to the Palace of Holyroodhouse, where her body was taken and visited by King Charles III and other major royals.
Charles and his siblings — Anne, Andrew and Edward — then followed the coffin back up the thoroughfare to St. Giles’ Cathedral in a procession held in almost complete silence, punctuated by cannon fire from Edinburgh Castle at one-minute intervals.
The royals then stood guard by her coffin in a vigil at the cathedral.
Some people waited for more than six hours to see the coffin as it lay in rest at St. Giles’, with the line stretching for more than a mile through the city’s picturesque sandstone Old Town.
“I have been sad about it, but actually seeing her in there just makes it so … real,” said Charlotte Morrison, 20, who is from Aberdeen but studies at college in Edinburgh.
Daniel Arkin reported from London; Alexander Smith reported from Edinburgh, Scotland.
Source: | This article originally belongs to Nbcnews.com
