National Gallery

The National gallery is a great place to go in London especially because it's free! It has thousands of spectacular paintings including works from Van Dyke, Di Vinci, Monet and Van Gogh.  The gallery illustrates the close connection between art, religion and history.  Personally, my favorite works are the large equestrian ones such as the van dyke painting of Charles I on a large buckskin horse that graces the center of the gallery.  One thing that surprised me was the vast number of italian paintings. Apparently Charles I and many other British collectors over the years collected Italian works and either sold or donated them to the gallery. located in trafalgar square at the end of the mall, the architecture of the building itself is worth admiring, it was originally a large stable and latter converted into an art gallery.