Queen Elizabeth isn’t letting her mobility issues slow her down.
The monarch seemed in good spirits as she stopped by the Chelsea Flower Show in London on Monday, arriving in a luxury golf cart due to her recent mobility issues. Over the course of her 70 years on the throne, the royal has attended this important event over fifty times as she is also a patron of the organization that runs the show, the Royal Horticultural Society. Buckingham Palace confirmed to the Daily Mail that despite her recent health setbacks, the queen decided at the last minute that she would attend.
The royal, dressed in a fuchsia coat and white gloves for the occasion, was able to make the visit thanks to her new four-seat cruiser from Danish manufacturer Garia, which has been called the “Rolls-Royce” of golf carts and reportedly retails for around $77,000. This is thought to be Queen Elizabeth’s first outing in the battery-fueled vehicle which can go up to 50 miles before it needs to be recharged. The golf cart also features an onboard mini fridge to keep all of the monarch’s beverages chilled, weather enclosure doors, and a 10-inch touch screen display next to the steering wheel that offers GPS and weather updates. If that’s not enough, the cart also features a lockable trunk, Bluetooth speakers, cup holders aplenty, and a heated windscreen.
According to a spokeswoman for the palace, “Adjustments have been made for the Queen’s comfort,” including being shown around the show’s ten gardens using the vehicle. This outing marks the first time in almost a decade that Queen Elizabeth has used a golf cart at an official royal engagement. She previously made use of a mobility vehicle in 2013 at the Coronation Festival held in the gardens of Buckingham Palace. She also used one two years prior to that during a tour of Australia where she visited the Government House in Canberra.
The monarch was also joined on this excursion by her youngest son Prince Edward and his wife Sophie Countess of Wessex, as well as her granddaughter Princess Beatrice and her husband Eduardo Mapelli Mozzi. In addition to the Chelsea Flower Show, the royals also gathered together to celebrate the planting of a new rose variation in the Buckingham Palace gardens—the John Ystumllyn rose named after one of Britain’s first black gardeners.
Queen Elizabeth said in a statement about the event, “I am pleased that the John Ystumllyn rose is being planted in the Buckingham Palace Gardens today. The rose has been bred as a mark of friendship and community, and I hope guests and visitors to the garden will have the opportunity to reflect on what this rose represents for many years to come.”
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