Walk to Explore the Old Town Area of Prague

Breakfast out of the way, we headed out to explore the Prague Old Town area. It’s on the other side of the Vltava River. Apparently, we are staying in an area called Lesser Town. You wouldn't think so based on the cost of the apartment and the prices on the menus downstairs.

To cross the river, we used the Charles Bridge. Its construction started in 1357—nothing to do with the English King Charles. The bridge is lined with very intricate statues, presumably of Charles and other religious figures. The statues were all named, but we were more interested in taking in the views of the city and the bridge in general.

On the opposite side, there are a number of museum buildings, and this is where the walk into the Old Town area begins. I noticed a few other museums as we walked around today, but looking at the map, there are many—and quite a variety, too. These include the Beer Museum (saw that one in passing), Banksy Museum, Story of Prague Museum, Sex Machines Museum (I’m not joking), Museum of Bricks, Steel Art Museum, Illusion Art Museum, Museum of Senses, and many more. You could spend a month here and visit a different one every day. I think there might be just as many churches.

The streets and buildings in Prague are pretty amazing. Most of the streets we have walked on today and yesterday are cobbled, and many of the footpaths are paved with bricks and stones in various patterns. They don’t just use concrete or asphalt here.

It didn’t take long before we reached a few things Sarah had marked on our map. The first was the Astronomical Clock, which reminded me a little of the Glockenspiel in Munich. It does something special on the hour, which we had just missed, so we carried on into the main square, where there are many beautiful buildings and a few sculptures—plenty of things to photograph. There’s also a very large church that’s not so easy to photograph; when you’re too close, you can’t see it properly, and when you’re far away, other buildings block the view. It’s called the Church of Our Lady before Týn. It has free entry, but we were too early as it doesn’t open until 10 a.m., so we continued walking.

We then came across a huge stone tower big enough for cars to drive through. It’s both a tower and a gate, called The Powder Tower, as it was where they stored gunpowder.

The map showed a large shopping mall just along the road called the Palladium. Sarah thought they might have shorts, so we went in to have a look. We came out without any shorts but still had the shirts on our backs.

We continued walking in an attempted loop, heading upstream (I think) but a few blocks away from the river. There was a building with huge mechanical butterflies on it—plane fuselages with butterfly wings that moved. Quite strange, but very cool. We detoured slightly to see the Revolving Head but decided not to wait for the next rotation on the hour. Our timing has been slightly off for things this morning… or maybe we’re just lacking patience today.

Our loop took us back to the Astronomical Clock, and it was four minutes to 10, so we waited to see it in action. Lots of tourist groups were gathered for the event. It chimed 10 a.m., things moved, noises sounded, and then the bells rang. A bit underwhelming. We were hoping figures might pop out of the doors like the Glockenspiel, but they stayed inside and just moved around partially visible.

We found a different bridge to cross the river and also checked out the two islands that sit in the middle of the river—Slovanský Island and Střelecký Island (Archer’s Island).

Our legs were pretty tired by now, so we headed back to Lesser Town and our apartment for coffee, lunch, and a rest.

We had a pre-dinner drink at the restaurant pub that always seems to have a line of people waiting to be seated when we pass—but no line at 5 p.m. An Erdinger Radler for me and a Pilsner Urquell for Sarah.

After our drink, we cooked pork steaks, pasta with sauce, and a lettuce salad for dinner. We went to see the Charles Bridge again, thinking there might be fewer people in the evening, but it was more crowded than earlier. Instead, we went under the bridge to see the area they call Little Venice and then walked along the river to the Big Babies sculptures. They were weird—looking like something from Doctor Who. We finished the walk back to the apartment via the John Lennon Wall.