We had purchased Prague Cards online for 46 euros each, which give free entry to many of the attractions and unlimited use of public transport for 2 days. We were to collect these in the tourist information centre in the old town so we walked there from the hotel. It was quite cold and cloudy, but dry and not unpleasant.
The first thing we did after collecting the cards was to use them to go up the tower in the old town hall, where the astronomical clock it. The views were great from the top.
Next we went in to the old town hall itself, for which we got a guided tour. This was really good, she was very knowledgeable and enthusiastic. She also took us into the underground vaults which were actually palaces from the days when the ground level was lower. They deliberately raised the ground level to avoid flooding.
At the end of the tour we discovered that the guide had spent holidays in St Monans and Anstruther in Fife, and had been swimming in the sea there!
We then walked to the Jewish quarter, and first visited the Pinkas Synagogue, in which the walls are painted with the names of more than 77,000 people who were killed in the holocaust.
Next to that is the old Jewish Cemetery, which is an amazing muddle of closely packed grave stones, because the bodies are buried up to 12 deep because of the limited space.
We climbed to the top, from where the views were even better than from the town hall tower.
Then we visited the adjacent mirror maze, which was good for a laugh.
We walked down through the park, which was very nice. It was quiet but I bet it's very busy in summer. We went for lunch at U Fleku, which is the largest restaurant in the Czech Republic with 1200 seats, and has its own brewery. We had salad, cold smoked pork neck and potato pancakes, washed down with some of their own dark beer. This was the only place all week where we really felt we were in a tourist-trap, they were trying to push liqueurs and bread onto you which they charged for.
After lunch we caught a tram down the river to the Vysehrad area, where we walked up the hill and through the Leopold gate.
We walked round the old fortifications, cemetery and cathedral there. then the rain came on. To shelter we went into the casements which are passages within the walls which were used to hide whole regiments of soldiers. We got a guided tour and the guide took us along a passage to a storage area, where are stored the originals of some of the statues on Charles Bridge, which have been replaced by replicas.
When we came out the rain had stopped so we walked back down towards the river to catch the tram back. We stopped for a drink at U Zlate Kotvy on the way. The tram then took us back to Wenceslas Square from where we walked to the hotel.
After a rest we got ready to go out. We'd chosen a restaurant called U Bulinu in the Vinihrady area from TripAdvisor, so we got the Metro to Namesti Miru station. We weren't let down, Scott had the pork ribs with toasted bread where were amazing, Shirley had beef casserole with carrots and potatoes.
After dinner we caught the Metro back - some of the escalators in the stations are amazingly long.
We had a drink in Bredovský Dvůr before going to bed.
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