Thousands of citizens brave the rain to receive the coffin of Elizabeth II in London

Tens of thousands of people have braved the London rain on Tuesday to receive the coffin of Elizabeth II, on her last trip to her official residence for 70 years: Buckingham Palace.

A military plane has transported the body of the deceased monarch from Edinburgh to Northolt air base, just over 22 kilometers from the center of the capital.

Waiting at the foot of the track, among others, were the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, Liz Truss, and the Minister of Defense, Ben Wallace.

In complete silence, a guard of honor has removed the coffin from the aircraft, to introduce it into the hearse, a vehicle designed jointly by the Royal House and the Jaguar Land Rover car company.

The colour:

, that dark maroon that the British immediately identify with the House of Windsor.

Thousands of citizens had already gathered along the A40, the access road to London from the west of the capital.

Many of the vehicles that were traveling on that road have parked in the fast lane, and their occupants have come out to greet the funeral procession.

But most of the citizens who have wanted to receive the monarch, on her return to London, have concentrated along Westbourne Terrace, Marble Arch, Park Lane, Hyde Park Corner, Constitution Hill and the square in front of the fence of Buckingham Palace, the main points of the last leg of the funeral procession route.

Already inside the palace, the king, Charles III, the queen consort, Camila, the Prince of Wales, William, and the Duke of Sussex, Henry, as well as other members of the British royal family, awaited the arrival of the body of the monarch.

Applause, shouts of "rest in peace" and even consecutive "hurras" have been heard when the crowd surrounding the palace has finally seen the hearse arrive, which, with extreme slowness, has traveled the last meters that separate the main gate from the building entrance.

The body of the monarch will rest during the night from Tuesday to Wednesday in the

, the room located in the very center of the west wing of the palace, named for the window that runs along one of its walls (

is bay window or bay window).

A group of chaplains will take turns during the vigil to watch over the coffin.

At six in the afternoon this Wednesday, Spanish peninsular time, a funeral procession will move the sovereign, on a military armor, from Buckingham to Westminster Hall, the central hall, with a thousand years of history, located next to the Houses of Parliament .

There, the queen's father (George VI) and her grandfather (George V), her mother, and her mentor and first in a long list of heads of government at her service, Winston Churchill, received tribute from the British.

The coffin will be placed on a catafalque in the center of the building, and during the next four days, uninterruptedly, thousands of citizens will be able to come to say goodbye to Elizabeth II.

The Metropolitan Police calculates that they can be up to 750,000.

There will be a line that will move with relative agility and that will split into two when arriving in front of the catafalque where the coffin will rest.

Nobody will be able to stop in his path next to the coffin.

Even so, the wait, as the police have warned, can reach 35 hours.

Complicated, even for the most devout, because Westminster Hall will be open 24 hours a day.

Impossible to sit down to rest, much less camp while waiting.

There will be mobile toilets, and 10,000 extra police officers will be deployed throughout the city.

Identification bracelets will be given to citizens who queue, to allow them to momentarily leave their posts.

The line will be divided into different segments, to be able to close them at intervals and allow the public some freedom of movement, as a way of resting.

On Monday, state funeral

For the state funeral and coffin procession, which will travel from Westminster Hall to Wellington Arch on a military truss, attendance figures can easily exceed the million people who witnessed Diana Spencer's funeral in 1997. A procession of members of the royal family will make the tour on foot, behind the body of Elizabeth II.

The religious ceremony will take place in Westminster Abbey, and hundreds of heads and former heads of state from around the world are expected to attend, from the American president, Joe Biden, to the French Emmanuel Macron, as well as the king and queen of Spain, Felipe VI and Letizia, and the emeritus monarchs Juan Carlos I and Sofía.

After the religious service and the funeral procession to Wellington Arch, the coffin will be deposited in a hearse, which will take it to Windsor Castle.

In the chapel of St. George, where the remains of Elizabeth II's husband, Philip of Edinburgh, rest, a new religious ceremony will take place.

Members of the royal family will be able to say goodbye to the monarch for the last time, already in private.

When his coffin descends into the crypt where the remains of the Duke of Edinburgh rest, Charles III will throw the first handful of earth to finally say goodbye to the longest-lived and most beloved queen in the history of the United Kingdom.

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