Showing posts with label National Gallery. Show all posts
Showing posts with label National Gallery. Show all posts

Tuesday, January 27, 2009

A Visit to the National Gallery

Saturday was bright and beautiful, if cold, as a few of us trekked down to the National Gallery (currently home to Van Gogh's "Sunflowers") and Trafalgar Square. No photography is allowed inside the building, but I did get some wonderful outside shots of the area.

A statue of George Washington. According to legend (and one of my friends) Washington swore he'd never set foot on English soil, so when this statue was installed in front of the gallery, they imported ground from America to set it on.

St. Martin-in-the-Field's Church.

I was definitely having a Mary Poppins moment here.

A Panoramic video of the area:


We were a bit surprised by the heavy police activity when we came out of the Gallery, and found out that there was a big anti-Gaza protest rally planned that night; as a result, most of the streets leading to the square were shut down.

Before we took our leave of the area, we were desperately in need of some food (contemplating all those paintings is an exhausting task!) so we stopped at a restaurant called Little Frankie's, a New York American Italian food chain that has crossed the ocean to set up shop in England. There was pizza and milkshakes all around! The rally, complete with the communist party, no less, was just getting underway when we finished, so we decided that it was probably a good idea to leave.

Complete photos can be found here.

Cheers for now!