embankment & soho

with hat still here in london, we decided to kickstart a new day with a visit to the national portrait gallery. it sits just next to the national gallery, but is tucked away to the side. the exterior is not nearly as grand as that of the national gallery, but it houses some incredible works - everything from the tudors in the 1500's right up to contemporary works by andy warhol & sarah lucas. i remember reading somewhere that it's home to around 160,000 works...

funnily enough, the npg has a focus on portraiture, so it's one of those peculiar galleries where more emphasis is placed on the subject of the work than the actual artist.

the weirdest portrait in the gallery is marc quinn's 'blood head'. it's a frozen sculpture of his own head, made up of several pints of his own blood. quinn makes a new cast every five years, to document his own transformation and ageing. euhh...

we also checked out a few of the temporary exhibitions - hoppé portraits: society, studio & street, ida kar: bohemian photographer and an englishman in new york: photographs by jason bell.

we were met with sunshine when we left the gallery, so we soaked up the rays watching buskers in trafalgar square, before wandering down northumberland avenue to the embankment. while strolling over the thames via one of london's twenty-four bridges, we got an incredible view of the london eye & westminster/big ben, all with a stunning backdrop as the sun began to sink down to the horizon. 

while walking along the embankment, we passed several bronze-cast dalí sculptures (the dalí museum is nearby) and the crazy-long line of people queueing up for the london eye. at 17 quid + a 30 minute wait in the increasingly-more-freezing-as-the-sun-dissapears weather, hat & i decided to give the london eye a miss. after all, i did go on it when i was 10 & i don't think a great deal has changed...

we made our way into soho for a delish pizza (it seems like we don't eat anything else..) and tomato, garlic & olive pasta. despite the beautiful weather during the day, london has a habit of turning arctic at night - so rather than brave the cold, hattie & i whiled away the evening in a cute patisserie with hot chocolates & melted brownies to keep us warm. yum!

S.

fishy fisheye

one of those rare £2 coins..