Island for the Royal visit.

The Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh arrive in Bermuda at 2.30 p.m. for their first official tour together in 19 years.

During their 44-hour long stay the public will get plenty of opportunity to see the Royal couple.

Inside today's Royal Gazette is a 32-page supplement, marking the visit.

The special edition includes the Queen and Duke of Edinburgh's full itinerary plus hints on where and when to see the Royal party, and an alternative schedule should the weather turn nasty.

Walkabouts are planned at King's Square in St. George's today, and Dockyard and Albouy's Point tomorrow. There will also be a chance for the public to see the Royal couple tomorrow afternoon at the Botanical Gardens.

That event will include entertainment and will be open to the public, but Police are warning motorists to get to the Gardens early and have stressed that only the South Road entrance will be open to traffic.

Public relations officer Sgt. Roseanda Jones said: "There will be traffic restrictions throughout the Island as the Royal party drive around. We will make every effort to keep these delays and road closures to a minimum.'' All the sites and routes on the Royal party's schedule have been cleaned and tidied over the past days and weeks, since the official itinerary was announced.

Bermuda College, the National Trust, the Corporation of Hamilton and many local businesses have been scrubbing and polishing as well as unfurling their Union Jacks.

Front Street has been resurfaced in particularly bad areas to provide a smooth ride for the party in the Governor, Lord Waddington's Daimler. And flags are now flying all along the route in Hamilton.

Corporation Secretary Mr. Roger Sherratt said the front of City Hall had been repainted and cleaned and the cedar floor of the Mayor's Parlour repolished.

"City Hall is looking very nice indeed and Front Street will look good,'' said Mr. Sherratt. "A number of businesses have contacted the Corporation over the past couple of days.'' The Corporation will present Bi-centenary coins to the couple in a specially made silver presentation case.

National Trust Director Ms Amanda Outerbridge said much of the weekend and today had been spent polishing silver and cutting down banana leaves at the Tucker House Museum in time for this afternoon's visit.

Leading the clean-up brigade was Museum Committee chairman Mr. Hugh Davidson and committee members.

Ms Outerbridge said that the Queen would see the new archaeological exhibit recently set up in the museum.

At Bermuda College cleaning operations had been brought forward. Publicity officer Ms Jan Doidge said: "The usual cleaning jobs have been speeded up a little in time for the visit.

"The fish tank, which we nicknamed the algae factory, has had an extra clean.'' Because the college has hotel status it normally has to meet Government standards as far as cleanliness is concerned.

An anonymous flier, faxed to news media yesterday, called on black high school and college students to stay home tomorrow as a protest against the visit of "the living symbol of the brutal, racist, imperialist power structure that enslaves our people''.

The cover of the five-page flyer features a sketch of a burning British flag, signed "Akeem''. Similarly signed drawings appeared earlier this year in the magazine The Nationalist, which prompted a Police investigation.

Reports from the Bahamas stated that the Queen's visit this week generated so little enthusiasm that protocol officers rushed to remove several rows of seats before she presided over a public ceremony.

The Caribbean News Agency reported that a third of the seats were vacant as the Queen prepared to open the new Tourism Training College in Nassau on Sunday. The empty chairs were whisked away to spare her the sight.

Yesterday she opened a school and a Supreme Court complex.

During an earlier stop in the Cayman Islands, shopkeepers and taxi drivers grumbled that her visit was costing them money because three cruise ships were diverted from the island to make way for the royal yacht. The cruise ships are a major source of customers for island merchants.