On the way across St James’s Park we passed Horse Guards Parade just as the guard was changing:

We were headed for the National Portrait Gallery, which is a  favorite place for me (R) and one Kerry really wanted to visit. But first we had to refuel in The Crypt under St Martin in the Fields, and then do a quick stop at the National Gallery – same building as NPG – so that I could visit van Eyck’s mysterious Arnolfini portrait, which I’ve been reading about. Alas a scrum –

but a chance for a quick visit to some other nearby masterpieces like this:

And so to the NPG, and some visits for what feel to me like old friends:

And just possibly my favorite object in the entire place, this astonishing plaster bust of the writer Colley Cibber, done almost 300 years ago now by Benjamin Rackstrow. Cibber was said to be one of the wittiest and most charming men of the 18th century; I can stare at this indefinitely, with the sense that he is on the very point of catching my eye and offering some surprising, mildly acidic comment on the times.

Afterwards we walked back past Buckingham Palace to the Tube, with a chill threat of sleet in the air, and home for dinner with Clarissa, Adam and Ella.

And from K, a few bonus pics