All good things must come to an end

For our last night in Europe we decided to take a London Bus to Trafalgar Square. It should have been a ten minute journey but about five minutes in the bus was detoured at a police road block. Traffic ground to a halt and there was an air of tension on the bus. An old english gentleman sitting behind us began advising another tourist not to get off the bus. The Londoners on the upper deck became increasingly agitated. And when the driver refused to open the door they operated the emergency button to exit. After another 10 minutes and 10 metres, more passengers escaped (much to the constination of the driver). We also made a break for it.

The mood on the street was also tense with everyone on mobile phones trying to find out what was going on. We overheard someone "there's something going on on Oxford Street". We turned a corner to find police barring entry. A tent had been errected and no one was allowed near.

We went down another street and found ourselves on Oxford Street which was packed with people. The street had been closed awaiting the count down for turning on the Christmas lights. The tent housed a stage and the Lord Mayor was announcing it was 47 days to Christmas! The Lord Mayor was followed by performances from finalists in the X Factor and then lights were turned on.

After all the excitement we decided to walk to Picadilly Circus but after walking for 10 minutes, Joy got directions. Right Street wrong direction! We later walked to the West End where they were promoting a comedy night. We decided to go and ended up in the basement of some hotel with about 20 others. In the process of the MC finding out where people were from we found that more than half the audience were Aussies, I think there 5 Britons there.

After the show we decided we would a nice local meal for our final dinner. We checked the prices at a few pubs and decided on an all you could eat Chinese Buffet (they had good chips).

We left London on Thursday morning and arrived in Sydney on Friday evening. The first priority was to get a good cup of coffee. It was the best we had had since Rome. Returned to Canberra on Saturday.

Today was our first day back at work. We were pleased to find the business operating well with no major issues for us to contend with. Well done guys, you have given us the confidence to start planning our next excursion! Stay tuned for the next exciting episode of the travelling Nicholls.