Prague Castle and Petrin Hill walk
The walk started around 9.20am from our hotel, Hotel Atlantic, a three star hotel in the Namesti Republic area, about 5minutes walk from Old Town Square. We headed off after our breakfast at the Hotel with the intention of reaching the New Castle Steps for 10am when there is apparently a serenading by a Brass Band half way up.
We headed off past the Powder Gate and Municipal House, through Old Town Square in the beautifully peaceful morning sunshine, with the throng of tourists yet to emerge - shops don't seem to open until 10am in Prague! Heading down the windy streets of Karlova Ul past all the unopen tourist souvenir shops towards Charles Bridge there was a feeling it was going to be a beautiful day after the overcast Friday just passed. At Charles Bridge we stopped for a photo opportunity in the sunshine before moving on over to the Mala Strana area of town.
We followed the road as it looked on our map, up Nerudova, expecting to come across the New Castle Steps on our right, unfortunately they didn't appear and we had unwittingly gone too far and found ourselves going up Ke Hradu instead, it was already 10am and we realised that seeing as we couldn't hear any Brass Band, we must have gone the wrong way. We eventually emerged up to the entrance of the Castle and Matthias Gate. We stopped for a photo opportunity and to get some stunning views over the city from the New Town Steps, the red rooftops giving such a vibrance to the view.
We proceeded into the Castle grounds, going into St Vitus' Cathedral and climbing the 287 steps upto the top of the South Tower. It cost us 100 and 50kcs (because Alison forgot her student card) to get into the cathedral and we thought it was a wasted entrance fee until we saw the signs up to the South Tower. By not paying the entrance fee you can still get into the Cathedral, but only up to a certain point and not including entrance to the South Tower.
From the Cathedral we moved down through the Castle grounds towards the Old Castle Steps to look at the stalls where apparently artists sit painting and selling their art. All we found were the same sort of stalls as we had seen in the market the day before, someone manning stalls selling prints and originals, but no artists. After much deliberating we decided on two small pieces of watercolour art, originals, for 600kcs.
We then went back up through the grounds to the front entrance, where there was the ceremonial 12 noon march of some sort. This involved a load of pristinely dressed soldiers marching in the courtyard and moving off into the castle.
From the Matthias Gate we walked West towards the Monastery, passing the Loreta, another highlight of Prague City. In the beautiful monastery we found our way to the Pivovar (brewery) where we planned to have lunch and sample some of the home brewed Czech beer. The beer was delicious, at 59kcs for 400mls it wasn't the cheapest but worth the £1.50 ish as it was a perfect thirst quencher. Two beers each later and a hearty meal of Goulash in a loaf and a roast chicken with cabbage and dumplings, we moved on towards Petrin Hill.
We followed the reverse of a route outlined in the Cadogan Guide to Prague which intended to take us up to Petrin Hill from the Monastery, to the Model Eiffel Tower, along to the Hunger Wall Tower and down through some of the beautiful winding paths in the Kinsky Gardens.
The walk took in some fantastic vantage points over the city, although our legs were a bit heavy after the hearty lunch and the two beers. We battled on along the path to the Model Eiffel Tower where we paid 10cks for a toilet stop and 40cks to climb the tower. There didn't seem to be as many steps as there had been in the Cathedral but the view was as spectacular. Panoramic views all round the city, and down to the now thronged Charles Bridge provided some of the best photos of the holiday. After the climb we moved on down the path towards the Hunger Wall Tower which was pretty unspectacular and down through the pretty winding paths to the Palace of Justice.
We then found a lovely little cafe called Cafe Savoy near the river which did an excellent mint tea. After this we walked back up the river towards Charles Bridge, via the disappointing John Lennon Wall. From here we walked back to the East side of the river and back to our hotel for a rest before dinner. It was 4.30 now after all - a long day walking but some great views for the effort!
Contributed by: Owen Llanwarne
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