As a pre-aliyah treat, a Hendon 72-year-old enjoyed a sentimental tour of some of her favourite London haunts on a red bus hired by family members.

Some three dozen relatives from the capital and Manchester set off with Helen Ginsbury from Golders Green, among them Hendon Synagogue's Rabbi Mordechai Ginsbury, who is one of her sons.

The route incorporated places of personal interest, including her childhood home in Temple Fortune, South Hampstead High School, where she was educated, and the offices near Euston Station where she worked for many years. The journey also took in landmarks like the Houses of Parliament, Buckingham Palace and the London Eye.

"The bus's destination banner - 'Grandma's Aliyah Tour' - certainly stopped people in their tracks," Mrs Ginsbury said afterwards. "We even saw tourists gathering round to take photographs of us."

She will be moving to Petach Tikva, close to her daughter and son-in-law.