Did you see Shakespeare in the next room?

Today we went to the National Portrait Gallery. For some reason, I thought that the gallery would be just photographs, but there were also paintings and sculptures, some dating from as far back as 1505. My three favorite paintings were the only portrait of Shakespeare widely reputed to be done during his lifetime, a portrait of Virginia Woolf done by her sister and a portrait of the Bronte sisters done by their brother. I almost squealed out loud when I came upon the picture of the Brontes. You can even clearly see the outline of their brother from before he painted a column over himself.

In front of the National Portrait Gallery

Right outside of the gallery was Trafalgar Square, the home of all sorts of shenanigans this Saturday afternoon, as pictured below.

Trafalgar Square

"All You Need is Love" was playing in the background

One of several chalk drawings

Living statue

We grabbed lunch at a cafe and sat in the square to take it all in. After lunch, I headed back to the Portrait Gallery to finish up in the last couple of galleries. Then we went to Leicester Square and grabbed some gelatto (I had banofee) and then we wandered over to the gospel festival that was happening in the square. (I know, a gospel festival in England? I couldn't believe it either! There was even a booth with a priest offering reconciliation, which was nice in a way, but also very strange.) On a related note, a nun totally cut in front of about 15 people in the gelatto line. Yeah, the irony was a little much for me too.

After Leichester Square, we poked around Piccadelly Square for a little while before heading off to the Tate Modern for dinner. Unfortunately, the Blackfriar's tube station and Blackfriar's bridge were both closed for construction, so getting around was a bit difficult. But, in the end, we only got lost three times. Dinner was lovely. We had pasta and chicken and we sat a table overlooking the Thames River and southern London. It was a lovely end to a lovely day.