The 'Highest' Points of Prague

The morning alarm was firstly ignored, and then cancelled, so we slept past sunrise in silent agreement that we would postpone our early morning bridge expedition until the next day. This turned out to be a good idea, as we were about to try and cram all of the high (meaning tall and towering) points of Prague into one day. The thought was already a bit tiring even after sleeping in. We began to head towards the centre point, and main tourist draw-card, the castle, knowing we would be battling the crowds by the tourist-train load. The climb to the top provided great views over Prague, and luckily the sun had come out to greet us.
We entered through the gates past the ‘Thunderbirds’ guards, who we swore were plastic people until we got closer. Odd. Highlights were the Basilica of St. George, Prague’s first Romanesque Church, which was a very different style to any we’d seen, minimalistic in a way. The Old Royal Palace had an expansive hall filled with variations of castle models, and led us through to the area where a religious argument resulted in people being thrown from a window (I don’t know the complete historical story…) and thrones and paintings filled the rooms.

The incredible St Vitus Cathedral was busier than Notre Dame, and you had to walk at a slow crawl to move through the space. Intricate sculptures filled the huge area, and light streamed through windows, hitting dust particles in the air. Besides the onslaught of tourists, it was quite a spectacular space. Golden Lane led us back out to the gates, and is a street of tiny houses built into the castle walls where people apparently still live, but is not much more than a line of tourist shops. After a brief visit to the towers filled with old torture devices, we decided it was time to leave for lunch.

After a nice healthy lunch we walked down the other side of the river, past the canals in a very beautiful area. We ended up at the John Lennon wall; a wall dedicated to peace and love, with a sculpture of John’s face, and wrote our names in the paint. After a coffee we climbed up the St. Nicholas Church tower, although we had to wait for a mother holding her kid over a drain to pee right in the entrance… It was a great view once we reached the top. Hundreds of spires throughout the city from the number of churches everywhere. We then visited the church itself, a baroque painted space, where you could visit the second level to an exhibition of painted scenes from the bible.

We left and conquered the hill that leads up to a huge tower you can climb, based on the Eiffel Tower, and given the hill that its standing on, its apparently as high as the Eiffel Tower itself from its peak. Hot and bothered, we snacked on icecreams on the way up, and then climbed to the top of the tower. Fantastic views, but it was so crowded at the top we couldn’t last long crammed into the enclosure. We were meeting Djali for dinner, and had an hour to spare, so quickly ran back to the hostel to change, and then met her back near the tower to try out a restaurant halfway up the hill. As we approached, the sound of a wedding band playing some atrocious music filled our ears, and we discovered the restaurant was booked out for the event. Back down the hill, we went to another of Djali’s recommendations, which was a Czech restaurant with delicious food and beer. All lovely slow-cooked meals…

Full and content, we made our way across one of the bridges, past beautifully lit buildings, and lights streaming across the river. Thousands of birds flew up over the museum lit from below, a breathtaking sight, and one we tried to capture on film unsuccessfully. We stood for a few minutes clapping and whistling, trying to recreate the moment, but gave up and headed for a few cocktails before leaving, as this time we WERE going to get up at 5.30am for Charles Bridge.