10 Lesser Known Facts About Queen Elizabeth II
8. We All Like To Travel But Maybe Not This Far
Have you been to Canada? The Queen has. In fact she has been there 27 times and she is no stranger to Australia having made 18 visits. In all, Her Majesty has visited over 129 different countries during 256 royal trips abroad. In 1954 the Royal Yacht Britannia was launched and was used for many trips until its de-commissioning in 1997.The ship sailed more than a million miles covering royal duties.
On trips such as these, tradition dictates an exchange of gifts and The Queen has received her fair share. Some have been a little surprising, especially the live animals. The Brazilians gave her jaguars and sloths, the Dutch a horse, the Canadians chipped in with two black beavers, the Seychelles volunteered some turtles and not to be outdone on a visit to The Cameroons she was given a bull elephant - there is no account of how she got it home.
All the animals were given to London Zoo except the horse which was stabled in the Royal Mews. On a slightly smaller scale she has also been given pineapples, 7 kilos of prawns and a box of snail shells. A particularly busy decade was the 1970s when her schedule included 73 trips to 48 countries. Just think of the air miles!