I took RM471 on a Christmas Lights tour for family and friends on Saturday evening and for the cast of a Loondon show on Sunday night. One of my sons arranged everything and we ran a full bus both times with plenty of liquid refreshment and food for the passengers. I had 159 blinds on but "NOT IN SERVICE" as the destination and they weren't illuminated.

We met up outside the London Transport museum on the Piazza at Covent Garden. (Good public toilets here) We do this tour every year and have found this route includes most of the sites and four bridges giving great views of London at night.

Strand, Ludgate Hill, St Pauls, Cannon Street, London Bridge, Tooley Street, Tower Bridge, the Tower, along the river edge and Embankment to Charing Cross, Trafalgar Square Regent Street, Picadilly Circus Oxford Street, Marble Arch, Park Lane, Victoria, Westminster Abbey, Parliament Square, Westminster Bridge. The high spot of the evening at the end is driving slowly northbound on Waterloo Bridge, my favourite London view, before dropping off passengers at the bus tour stop in Aldwych.

The trip took two hours on Saturday (mainly due to heavy traffic in Regent Street) and just over an hour on Sunday.

Everybody had a great time and we were photographed thousands of times by happy pedestrians. Lots of smiles and thumbs up from other bus drivers. The only other RM we saw was one of International Coachlines party buses which is what RM471 was before I bought it.

It is great fun driving in London and RM 471's reconditioned AEC AV590 handled the load effortlessly.

The only bus lane to avoid is Northbound Regent Street which is clearly marked for "local" buses only.

Happy Christmas eveyone.

My bus number (if any): RM471 & RM 2213