Last Day in London

I intensely dislike packing, and I'm going to have to start.  Tomorrow morning our study group is going in all directions.  Most are heading back to various parts of the U.S., and a few of us are staying a bit longer.  My dragon and I are headed to Cardiff.  I'm so excited about seeing the land of some of my ancestors.  It will be hard to part from people I've lived with for only three weeks, because we have gotten to know each other so well.  Because we all work in some aspects of the Information Science field, I feel certain some of us will see each other again in a professional capacity.  I also know that I will keep in contact with those I have grown especially close to.

Today we went to Buckingham Palace!  Each of us was given an audio device and it was seriously the best audio tour I have taken.  It was perfectly synched and you could press different numbered buttons if you wanted to hear more about a certain topic.  Different people spoke on the tape including the Queen's husband (!) thanking us for visiting.  Notice in my picture that the flag is flying, indicating the Queen was at home today.

The palace was splendid, and each room was explained in detail.  Some of these rooms are still used by the Royal Family.  The Queen's 1953 coronation was covered in detail.  My favorite part was a movie where you could see the young Queen tap her 2 and 4-year-old children on the shoulders when they made faces, covered their eyes, etc. during the official photography session.  All the while she continued to smile without seeming to look down.  It was a true mom moment.

Speaking of moms, I took this photo for mine as she would love the gorgeous window boxes in London.  They are all over the place, and I spotted these while walking from the palace to the Hard Rock Café for our final luncheon.

 

 





As always we had a photo focus, and today's was capturing movement by photographing a vehicle.  London is the hardest city to cross the street safely in of any place I have ever been, but would you believe today it was hard to find a speeding vehicle?  It seemed that everywhere we looked in the area of the palace people appeared to be driving, well, almost normally!  I did manage to capture a bit of motion with this car below, but I actually felt safe walking around in that area.  Bad photo op though.
I prefer safe.  Hey, you can sort of see his wheels moving....

I will leave you with a picture of a small part of the Queen's gardens.  She has gorgeous gardens.  When next you hear from me I will be in Wales, where my dragon hopes to find his name.