Crowds lined the streets of Aberdeen, north-east Scotland, as the body of Queen Elizabeth II passed by.
There was a great sense of anticipation as people followed a message on their phones of his approach from the west.
Some clapped as the court passed, but there was a silent atmosphere.
Then it was all over quickly, leaving them to reflect on sharing that moment in history.
“This is my friend Angela who I just met today,” Julianne Cole from Kyogle, NSW tells me.
(ABC News: Cameron Schwarz)
Julianne is on holiday in Scotland and has just arrived in Aberdeen when news of the Queen’s ill health and subsequent death broke.
“I heard it.
“We’ve been talking about how it really hit us in an emotional way that I didn’t expect because I’m not a royalist.”
Angela Mafuko from Zimbabwe, which was the British colony of Southern Rhodesia, said she had known the Queen all her life.
“She was an amazing woman.
“Knowing that he’s gone…knowing that this kind of like his last day to leave us…it’s heartbreaking
“I was shaking.”
Reporting by ABC International Correspondent Barbara Miller