becky, i think that image of princess ann curtesying really caught everyone s attention. the royal family will be walking up the royal mile from the palace of holyrood house at the bottom of the hill here. this road, the royal mile stretches to the edinburgh castle and stop at st. giles cathedral where the queen s coffin will be brought for that prayer service, but there s a lot of people gathering here and a lot of people are expected to be here at the roadside to watch the royal family make their way on foot up these cobbled streets. when you think of the emotion that princess ann was going through yesterday, for the royal family, this is going to be a very, very intense moment. king charles, the queen consort walking up half a mile or so of cobbled street with thousands upon thousands upon thousands of people just a few feet away from them. they ll be in the road here.
that service will take place here at st. giles cathedral. moments ago, prince harry paid tribute in a statement to his grandmother, queen elizabeth ii, thanking her for her and i quote here, sound advice and infectious smile. he continued by saying in celebrating the life of my grandmother, her majesty, the queen, and in mourning her loss, we are all reminded of the guiding compass she was to so many in her commitment to service and duty. i want to get straight away to cnn s nic robertson. nic joins us now at st. giles cathedral. nic, good morning to you. reporter: good morning, don. the crowds are really beginning to gather along the royal mile here. the cobble street that runs from the palace of holyrood down the hill here where the queen is lying. all the way up the street here around the corner behind me you can t see it, that s edinburgh
really there, his mother is lying in rest, thanksgiving service in scotland and beginning a tour around the uk and will also go to northern ireland and met commonwealth leaders. it really is charles who is our oldest person ever to come to the throne, the longest serving apprentice as king is doing the constitutional role. it is when you re a monarch, there s no time to grieve. you go straight into it. he will be in scotland later on today. let s bring in nic robertson, who is in edinburgh. you know, iconic image of the casket yesterday draped in the royal standard of scotland. we saw princess ann clearly visibly moved as she curtesied before the queen s coffin. she had, nic, spent six hours yesterday following the hurst what was a slow journey from balmoral to edinburgh. what can we expect there today? reporter: yeah.
amanpour. good morning to one and all. richard, walk us through this parliament address today. it s a significant one because this is the elected members and their opportunity to say thank you to the queen and basically good luck and we support you to the king. what s interesting is you just played a clip of when charles opened parliament in his mother s name. and he talked about her majesty s government will do this. her majesty s government will do that. the next time he opens his parliament it will be my government will do this. my government will do that. so there is a definite shift. it s a noticeable shift in what you re going to see today are further steps along the road of him taking control. this is not just ceremonial, this is a transition of power. completely and utterly, don. little bit. it s all part of a very, very large jigsaw, but each day another piece of that jigsaw is being placed on the table.
looking at some of the memorials and the flowers that have been left. as we have been saying not just prince charles but his sister princess ann clearly very moved, curtesying in front of the casket as it arrived at holyrood house yesterday. is this are these images that we re seeing yet do you think indicative of how the royal family will show themselves going forward? who will be more visible, who perhaps will be a little more in the background going forward? yes. these are the questions we re asking, becky. what will the new monarchy under king charles look like. under the queen, it s been the further. big balcony waves, big groups and talks of a slimmed down monarchy increasingly. is that going to happen under king charles iii. there s a public appetite for reduced monarchy, but as other