I ventured out to visit the Natural History Museum at South Kensington today but the drab wet weather the long queues that formed outside made me decide that the wait was not worth it. Instead I took the opportunity to cross “Museum Lane” to the side that houses the Victoria and Albert Museum. This museum displays probably one of the largest collections of decorative arts including contemporary and historic, and just like most other museums in London entrance is free.

The museum itself houses apparently 146 different galleries and regularly hosts a number of seminars discussing various topics in contemporary art. The building itself is massive composed of several floors each with different parts displaying various works such as ceramics, glass, metalwork, furniture, photos and paintings. Though some of the selections are not always relevant or functional, many of them you would still appreciate as being impressively decorative.

After a while of walking around I caught the tube and visited the National Portrait Gallery. The gallery is yet another free institution most well known for the large collection of busts in paint, picture of photos on display. Its prime location between Trafalgar Square and Leceister Square makes it extremely popular and definitely worth the visit. Being Britian’s national gallery, you should find it no surprise that many of the busts inside are mainly English people. On the first floor that I visited there was a eerily life-sized portrait of Dame Judi Dench and even more amazing 3D display of JK Rowling (the author of Harry Potter) in a setting that truly looked life like. Of the exhibitions that I visited, I definitely enjoyed the “Look at Me” the most. This exhibition was commissioned and took a close look at the lives of teenagers from around England, some of which were predictably amateurish but others that were both powerfully relevant and presented magnificently.