Queen Elizabeth II: A globetrotter without a passport

In 1947, Elizabeth accompanied her parents on an official trip for the first time. Still a princess and not yet queen, the journey took her through southern Africa. In this photo taken in Bloemfontein, South Africa, she is standing to the left of her father King George VI. Next to her are her mother, Queen Elizabeth, and her sister, Princess Margaret.

In early 1952, Elizabeth and Prince Philip traveled to Kenya and planned to continue to Australia and New Zealand. The trip was cut short due to the death of her father, King George VI. When she was crowned Queen Elizabeth II, she set off on a six-month world tour in 1953, during which she visited Australia. In the state of Queensland, Indigenous people were her guards of honor.

No matter where the queen traveled, she could be sure that people would be there to greet her. Here in Australia in 1954, she was met by marine soldiers from Papua New Guinea. This world tour took her to a total of 12 countries. In addition to Australia, she visited New Zealand, the Fiji Islands and Tonga, among other nations. She also traveled to many countries closer to home.

The queen made her first state visit to Germany from May 18 to 28, 1965. During the trip, she planted a tree at the English Garden in Berlin's Tiergarten and was accompanied by the then-mayor of Berlin, Willy Brandt (to the right of the queen) and Prince Philip (left of the pole). Since then she made four more state visits to Germany, the latest in 2015.

When Queen Elizabeth (center left) visited Thai Queen Sirikit (right) in 1972, her husband and her daughter Princess Anne were also present. Even on long-distance trips like this one, the queen did not carry a passport. She never actually possessed one.

A spokesperson for the royal family once explained it was unnecessary for the queen to have a passport, because all passports in the UK are issued in her name anyway. In this picture, Elizabeth attended a tea ceremony in the garden of the Katsura Imperial Villa in Kyoto, Japan, in 1975. She apparently always had her own tea kettle with her when she traveled.

Her tea kettle wasn't the only personal item the queen always packed with her: She also carried a supply of her own blood in case of medical emergencies. Food, however, was one thing the queen and her entourage never lacked. She was offered a wide variety of regional cuisines, as seen here in India, in 1983 — she reportedly always had three doctors with her who inspect local clinics in advance.

In 1996, Elizabeth returned to Bangkok for a five-day state visit. Together with Crown Princess Sirindhorn, she took a tour of the Chulalongkorn University campus, where the crown princess had studied. King Bhumibol had his 50th anniversary on the throne that year, and received congratulations from the queen.

Inuit women remained seated when Elizabeth visited them in their tent in the Labrador region of northeastern Canada in June 1997, which was something unusual for the queen. She accepted the invitation of Inuit chief Paul Rich. She enjoyed being in Canada. She has visited 22 times — more than any other country.

In October 1997, the queen had actor Kamal Haasan give her a tour of a film set in the Indian city of Chennai. At that time, the queen still could have taken the royal yacht Britannia on her visit to this port city. Two months after her visit, the 130-meter ship, in use since 1954, was decommissioned. Today, it's a museum.

Queen Elizabeth was fond of wearing colorful dresses on her travels, especially hats. She wore around 70 new hats each year. She wore this white hat in 1999, during a visit to Maputo, the capital of the eastern African state of Mozambique, where she was welcomed by a traditional dance group. Mozambique marked the end of a tour in Africa, during which she visited Ghana and South Africa.

In 2008, on her only visit to Slovakia, the queen ceremonially dropped the puck for an England-Slovakia ice hockey game. But typically, she was the one receiving gifts, including living creatures like a baby elephant from Cameroon and two sloths from Brazil. The animals are usually entrusted to the London Zoo.

Home was where the heart was. Here, Queen Elizabeth's duties included addressing the House of Lords at Westminster Palace in London. The annual highlight of Great Britain's parliamentary monarchy was the queen's speech from the Sovereign's Throne, seen here on May 11, 2021.