Royal Watch News

Queen Elizabeth 'dreading' Thames flotilla?

May 16, 2012, 12:01 GMT

Queen Elizabeth

Britain's Queen Elizabeth is 'dreading' the Thames pageant she will undertake as part of her Diamond Jubilee celebrations.

The monarch will be taking part in a flotilla of 1,000 boats down London's main river as part of the celebrations of her 60th year on the throne, but her cousin Margaret Rhodes thinks she may not be too happy at the prospect.

She said: 'Excitement is not quite the right word. I think there might be a tiny shred or two of mild dread.

'She slightly dreads the ship thing, rather as Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother slightly dreaded celebrating her 100th birthday. There's a sense of, 'Am I going to get through it all?''

Margaret is one of the queen's closest confidents, and she reveals she speaks to her as she would any pal and thinks the monarch's love of walking has kept her so strong.

She told the Daily Telegraph newspaper: 'I can talk to her just as if I'm talking to any friend. Just the other day, reflecting on how many of our generation are decrepit and on sticks, I said to her that perhaps the fact that she and I had spent a lot of our early years stalking in Scotland - walking all day, several days a week - meant that one's muscles have held up, or whatever muscles do, and helped one to keep going.

'That and the love of the outdoor life. The queen has great stamina and she is so wonderfully pragmatic. She will go on doing things as long as she can do them.'