National Portrait Gallery, Trafalgar Square, and Buckingham Palace

Saturday was a bit of a day of exploration. We started out with the aim to go see Leicester Square and the surrounding neighborhoods. By the time we arrived, we were ravenously hungry and I was more than ready for my first authentic plate of fish and chips.

Needless to say, it was glorious.

After gorging ourselves on fried goodness, we popped into the National Portrait Gallery, another great free museum, right in Leicester Square.

Convincing, right?

Madonna on the top and the artist's self portrait in the bottom right hand corner.

Nicole Kidman

We then wandered a bit around Piccadilly Circus and nearby Trafalgar Square.

 People climb up on these humongous lion statues in Trafalgar Square to take photos. It's harder than it looks!

Flags hung around Piccadilly Circus advertising for the NFL games that'll be played in London this year.

Eventually, we made our way over to Buckingham Palace, home to the queen herself.

She's actually on vacation right now! 

We spent the majority of the rest of the afternoon in the park directly next to Buckingham Palace. The Queen has tons of parks and each is prettier than the last. This one, like most of the others, was loaded with wild birds, especially ducks. They make for great lazy entertainment. And with a view like this, who would complain?