A cold, windy day on the South Bank

We took advantage of the fact that we had a day off and it wasn't actually raining to head up town and check out the Roy Lichtenstein exhibit at the Tate Modern.  Here are Sarah and Alex playing on a sculpture on the South Bank...

Walking down the Jubilee walk - you can see St Paul's across the river.

We found an extract from the Wasteland etched into the pavement along the river near Blackfriars Bridge. Quite a bit of it was quoted - not sure quite how much, but large sections of the first stanza of the Fire Sermon.  It was fun to see. 

The tide was out quite a lot, which always adds interest, though it was too cold and damp to go down and poke around on the "beach" left by the receding tide.

Top cold for us, anyway - this seagull may have felt differently, though I think he looks cold, personally. 

Oddly, it didn't seem to be too cold for this bloke who was making a sand sculpture  - to each his own!

Arriving at the Tate Modern, you get these lovely rows of birch trees - I always enjoy these.

We booked tickets for the Lichtenstein in the afternoon, and then headed over to visit the Old Operating Theatre and Herb Garret Museum, which is over by London Bridge, Borough Market, and, as you can see, The Shard. 

The Museum was great - lots of old bits and pieces to poke around in, including some rather scary medical implements, but also lots of containers from patent remedies and medical specimens. It was a lot of fun. 

This is the operating theatre itself - the whole museum and theatre are above a church, which is kind of funny. But it's a fun, quirky place to explore. 

Loved this window full of bottles - I took several photos of it...

After some lunch, it was back to the Tate for the Lichtenstein (no photos allowed) - I really enjoyed this. I never realised how much more there was to his work than the few stereotypical pieces we see all the time, such as Wham or Oh Jeff I Love You Too But... For instance, he did a number of Chinese Landscape inspired paintings, which we all really liked. (This is the view from a gallery window - again, you can see St Paul's across the river.)

And finally, here's a door in a road off Roupell Street, which we walked down on the way back to Waterloo from Blackfriars Bridge - it was so windy, we decided to go inland a bit, and as I used to work in the area, I know a lot of ways to walk the route. I always did enjoy Roupell Street.