exchanging currency

Well, I'm back. More trip details to follow, but first I want to follow up on my tweet from Heathrow yesterday. I asked whether it was better to exchange my pound notes for dollars at Heathrow Airport in London, Logan Airport in Boston, or my local bank at home (Bank of America). The most common advice I got was to keep them for the next time I go back to the UK, but I have no plans to be back anytime soon, and pound notes do expire. Also, my uncle went kind of overboard buying pound notes, and gave me all his leftovers, so it was a not-inconsiderable amount of money to be sitting on indefinitely. So, I ended up checking the exchange rate on the Bank of America website, which was $1.48 per pound, while the Bureau de Change kiosk at Heathrow was showing a $1.42 rate, so I decided to wait until I got home. I went today, and got $1.47 (actually $1.474305), but that included the exchange fees, which may not have been included in the airport rate. Anyway, my conclusion for money-changing is: avoid exchange bureaus, and go straight to a bank. (They also deposit the money directly into your account, which may contribute to the better rate, but is also more convenient than having to make a separate transaction to deposit the cash.)