From the outskirts of London, we’re heading right into the city centre today. We’ve got a hotel near Kings Cross Station for the next couple of days where we have stayed before.

All together, we visit the National Portrait Gallery just some steps from Trafalgar Square. We already passed it several times but visiting it just never fitted into our schedule. The gallery is beautiful and really worth visiting. Also, admission is free – as is with many museums in London. There are huge paintings and very small ones, historic and new ones, busts, statues, and even some small wax figurines. There’s always a small plaque that gains us some insight into the person’s live.

Queen Elizabeth I

Anne Boleyn

English Kings

Beautiful halls

William Shakespeare – probably the most famous painting of him

I’m wearing portraits too! Would they be displayed in the gallery as well?

Author James Joyce

The Royal Family with the current Queen as a young woman

Afternoon mood at Trafalgar Square with the Admiral Nelson column

After visiting the gallery, we have booked a table in the National Gallery café nearby which is know for its afternoon tea. We get a stands with three levels. On the bottom one, there are four sandwiches with salmon, cucumber, ham and coronation chicken. One level above, there’s a scone with cream spread and jam. And on the top floor, four sweet delights await us. We think that the layer one is chocolate and passion fruit, the round one is a chocolate and caramel tart, then a square one with almond sponge filled with cherry paste, and almost hidden a chocolate mousse sponge heart with a solid chocolate bottom that chrunches nicely. Yummy!!!

It’s almost six o’clock when we say our good-byes and head back to the hotel. We’ve got a nice, large room with a view of our car in the gated yard. This is how we like it! 🙂

We leave the hotel shortly after eight when we finally get hungry again. We walk to Kings Cross Station and visit the Harry Potter store first. It has grown to about three times its size since our last visit and still draws a huge crowd of tourists. The new play (and script book) ‘The Cursed Child’ adds a lot to that.

We decide on dinner from Leon and take a black bean box and my beloved Moroccan meatballs box back to the hotel. Lovely!!