contrasts

Today is my last full day in London.  It is bittersweet.  I will miss it but I am very ready to go home tomorrow.  I have been slowly packing up all of my stuff.  Somehow, I have accumulated a large amount of chocolate (for myself and for gifts) which I will need to take in my carry-on.  However, I have been unable to pack my carry-on just yet as I want to put my laptop in the very bottom and clearly I cannot pack that just yet.  I am on the same flight home as Darla and Crystal and Elvis has booked us a cab for tomorrow morning. 

As for the day's travels, we had a tour of Buckingham Palace this morning where I noticed there seemed to be a disproportionate amount of old people touring.  Not like older-than-me old, more like easily-old-enough-to-be-my-grandparent old.  I think that most of us agreed that the palace is neat and all, but some of the stuff is just ridiculously gaudy.  One super cool thing I learned about was the secret door in the White Drawing Room, which can't really be much of a secret if they practically advertise it on the official website of the British Monarchy and in the audio guides offered at the palace.

After our tour of the palace, we trekked over to the Illustration Cupboard, an art gallery dedicated to displaying art and illustrations from children's books.  I'm usually all over art galleries, but I'm not really all that interested in children's books, so...yeah....  Anyway, we then had our last meal together as a group at the Hard Rock Cafe.  It was lots of fun and lots of food.  So much food.  But delicious food nonetheless. 

For most of our trip, we have had lovely weather, but today, our last day, it was rainy and cold.  And it would just happen to be the one day I decide not bring my wind breaker jacket.  Ah well, I did have my umbrella so I didn't get soaked or anything.  The rain wasn't all bad, though.  While Tara and I were doing some last-minute souvenir shopping and trying to spend our last few pounds, we saw a few people taking pictures seemingly randomly looking down Great Russell Street.  Then we noticed the beautiful rainbow that was perfectly framed by the buildings lining the street.  What a nice way to end our trip on a high note.