Like any self-respecting American tourist, George W Bush didn't waste any time after arriving in London.
There he was, up and about nice and early, to meet the Queen, check over a Guard of Honour and listen to the Grenadier Guards.
Just your regular trip to the UK for the folks from Texas.
It was probably him, anyway. To be honest, such was the security outside Buckingham Palace on Wednesday, no-one watching from behind the barriers could have been totally certain that the guy checking the shiny buttons of the 1st Battalion Grenadier Guards really was the President of the United States.
The area immediately outside the palace gates was sealed off and guarded by armed police officers.
And the crowd of onlookers - a mixture of tourists, people on their way to work and a few protestors - had to peer over the bearskins of the guards for a glimpse of the president.
Tents
There had been an eery silence walking up towards the palace. With the roads closed, the usual sounds of traffic chaos were replaced by little more than the flags blowing in the wind and a helicopter whirring overhead.
On the palace roof, police spotters checked out the crowd as the Household Cavalry waited outside the gates for the president's arrival.
Some of the horses jumped as a 41-gun salute, fired by the King's Troop, Royal Horse Artillery, began from nearby Constitution Hill.
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But for all the shouts of "go home" during the anthem, there were as many claps at the end from others in the good-natured crowd
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There were a few jeers as the president's car, a bomb proof Cadillac DeVille, pulled up outside the marquee erected outside the palace - which has the look of a massive Punch and Judy stand - to be officially welcomed to the UK by the Queen.
And there were more as the band of the Grenadier Guards and the Corps of the Drums of the Battalion played the Star Spangled Banner.
But for all the shouts of "go home" during the anthem, there were as many claps at the end from others in the good-natured crowd.
Then, as President Bush inspected the Guard of Honour, the crowds started to trail away past the row of tents and the Union Flags and Stars and Stripes lining the Mall.
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