We decided to go back to Malá Strana, to see (roughly) the other half that we didn't go through on Sunday.
To get there, we headed north from the apartment, winding our way through the narrow streets of Old Town.
Once we reached Karlova (Charles) street, we turned left at the Apple Museum and strolled over the Charles Bridge. The weather was beautiful, so I took more pictures of Prague Castle, the bridge, and
Once we reached the west side of the river, we turned right and looked for a place to grab some lunch. We chose Café Creperie Pod Věží, which was the first cafe that advertised baguettes and paninis, and split a few sandwiches.
After lunch, we went in search of the narrowest street in Prague...
... and found it.
Calling this a "street" is a stretch; it's more like an alley, with stairs and traffic lights.
Just past this "street" is the Franz Kafka museum, which has some rather unusual statues in its courtyard.
As I recall, this is one of the first things Sabrina took me to see, the first time I was here in 2010. In fact, reading the blog post from that day in 2010, it was the first thing she took me to see.
Next, having no particular destination in mind (the journey is the destination?), we meandered up towards Prague Castle, choosing a different route than we had taken on Sunday (on the way to the funicular), stopping to take photos of anything that caught my attention.
Weaving the tram routes through Malá Strana must have been quite a feat of engineering, especially considering that it may have happened over 100 years ago. See this history section for some fascinating information about the tram system.
The beautiful weather has never lasted long, this week, but there were still occasional patches of sun to warm us up.
In many places, the sidewalks are covered and/or integrated into buildings.
Why anyone would choose to drive in this city is a mystery to me.
Although, it must be nice that there are no parking meters, and no parking tickets. But there are reserved parking areas, and signs suggesting one's car would be towed for parking in them.
There are dozens of museums in Prague, so perhaps it's understandable that the Gingerbread Museum hasn't (yet?) made the semi-official list. (There are some very odd ones that did make the list, though.)
As we reached the top of Nerudova, apparently right before it becomes Úvoz, we decided not to go any higher and turned down an alley of stairs leading to the street we came down on Sunday.
The Museum of Alchemy (on the left in this photo), sadly, is also not on the semi-official list.
Cars, delivery vans, work trucks, etc., absolutely drive up these roads. Somehow.
We have had to squeeze into doorways several times this week, while walking around Malá Strana and Old Town, to allow vehicles (sometimes mini buses) to pass on roads like these.
This one isn't a road, although I think it was a driveway of some sort.
Eventually, we made it down to Kampa Park, and took a snack break on a bench. It was just after 3 PM at that point.
The MoCo tour of Karlštejn had returned by then, so we decided to meet Brenna and Shannon back at the apartment.
We found our way to the Legion Bridge, and crossed back to New Town.
We passed the National Theatre for about the sixth time this week, where everyone but me would be going to see an opera tonight.
It was just before 4 PM when we got back to the apartment.
Sabrina, Brenna, and Shannon got changed into fancy opera apparel, awe hiked a few blocks back towards the theater, and went to Café Slavia for dinner.
We finished dinner around 6:30 PM, and just had to cross the street to the opera house.
The opera was from 7 to 10ish, so I had a few hours to kill; my plan was to walk along the river and end up at Vyšehrad.
It was about a mile walk, and it got colder as the sun went down, so I headed one block in from the river to get out of the wind once I reached the Dancing House,
When I found the stairs leading up to the fortress, my decision to go there alone, at night, started to feel a little crazy.
Once I got to the top, though, it was lit fairly well, and there were other people scattered around in the darkness with me.
The view from the top is incredible, and I had only been up there during the day, previously.
I walked around the entire fortress grounds, thankful that I had brought a flashlight.
THe group of 7 or 8 people doing tai chi (or whatever it was) in the dark, in silence, was a bit creepy; I thought they were statues, until I noticed they were moving.
I encountered a variety of people walking around in the dark up there, including a woman playing the violin for a few friends, couples sitting on benches, lots of joggers, a few people walking their dogs (one of which had a glow-in-the-dark collar, like a glowstick), and other tourists.
The former fortress is still mostly surrounded by a huge wall, topped with a wide walkway, that offers more great views of the city.
Petřín Tower and Prague Castle are easily recognizable from atop the wall, even though they don't seem that way in these photos.
I eventually had to find a way down to the streets below, in order to catch a tram back to the partment.
After applying some technological assistance, I found the exit that would lead me down to a tram stop, and took it back to the edge of New Town and Old Town, near where we're staying.
I got back to the apartment around 9:15 PM, and the opera-goers returned maybe an hour later.
Tomorrow morning, Shannon and Brenna plan to go to Josefov (the Jewish quarter), while Sabrina and I will probably roam around a different part of the city again.
In the afternoon, we plan go to Vitkov, among other activities. I wasn't really paying attention during the planning chat.
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