A queen on the train

You'll never guess who I saw on the train today - how often is that said by a weary traveler to a partner or parent who really couldn't care less?  There will be a handful of commuters who have a great travel story to tell this week after Queen Elizabeth II began her Christmas holidays by taking the train to Norfolk before heading off to her Sandringham estate for the festive season.

 

The headscarf isn't hiding who this passenger is - the Queen does what all wives do after a long train trip with the other half and stalks off down the platform leaving Prince Philip with the bags

 

The Queen tried to go incognito but a patterned headscarf isn't covering up the most famous woman in the world and there were plenty of people there to catch a monarch on a train platform for posterity.  There is something marvelously ordinary and yet totally extraordinary about this image of Elizabeth II doing what many of her subjects do every day.  Add to that the sight of Prince Philip following on behind carrying the bag and it could be any long married couple who have just spent an hour or so arguing over who gets to do the crossword and wondering whether it's worth going to the buffet now they're halfway through the trip.  Looks like the Queen won the crossword battle here.