2nd July 2005 Prague

We are up and the sun is out, but we�re not silly, so armed with our brollies we set off to Cafe Obecni dum for breakfast, this is the cafe attached to the Municipal House where concerts are held regularly. It�s a stunning Art Nouveau building with the cafe to one side and an evening only restaurant on the other.
We sit in all the nouveau splendour, chandeliers twinkling, fountain tinkling, gold everywhere you look and eat an ok breakfast.
We walked down through the old town and over Charles Bridge where we stopped to buy two lovely pairs of copper and enamel earrings for me. On up to the funicular which we�d seen yesterday opposite the Cantina.
The funicular is the easy route up to Petrin Hill which is 300 metres above sea level. This area was once a vineyard back in the 15th century, but has been a public park since 1825. Apparently early chronicles say that it was the site of pagan rituals to the god Perun and believers still practise ancient rites here on 1st May each year. Today it is a stunning park with forests and orchards and beautiful rose gardens.
We queue for the funicular as there is a wedding party going up!
At the top there are horses or a horse and carriage you can hire to explore the area. We walked through the lovely rose garden to the Eiffelovka, Petrin�s observation tower, built in 1891 for the Jubilee Exposition. This stands 63.5 metres high and is a quarter of the size of the Eiffel tower in Paris on which it is modelled. A climb of 299 steps leads to the viewing platform, yes we did climb it as there are stunning views over Prague. What is it with us lately that we have to climb as high as we can get, even when we are 1,000 feet above sea level already? Lots of pix taken of course!
I am on a mission to find the Church of St. Michael a lovely little wooden church with three spires which was built in 1410 and moved up here when the Ukraine valley it stood in was flooded by a dammed river.
We walked for miles around this gorgeous park, up hill and down dale and eventually located it. It is a fantastic little church, reminiscent of the wooden churches in Norway, but much more intricate in design, well worth the search, but closed and padlocked and much in need of restoration. I do hope they don�t let it just fall to pieces, we stayed for a while in the peace and quiet of it�s presence and took pix of course. We continued down and eventually out of the park and walked by the river till we came to a nice little boat restaurant Cervina Sedma where we stopped for lunch overlooking Vitava river. A great view of the National Theatre and a strange modern building in glass which is shaped like half an egg timer! Carried on up the riverside till we reached Pod Veso where we stopped for coffee and pudding.
Under Charles Bridge we found a place doing 50 minute boat trips so went on the next boat, a nice relaxing trip with lovely views of the buildings from the water.
Back on land we went back over the bridge to the old town and watched the gorgeous Astronomical clock do it�s six o�clock dancing, cock crowing and chiming thing. Wandered around the shops and sat in the square for a drink then went back over the bridge and round and under it to a little cafe we�d noticed earlier for dinner. Both had goulash, dumplings and apple cake, yummy! Walked back over bridge for umpteenth time today, this time in the dark and Andrew took photo�s of the castle etc. all illuminated and looking stunning. Walked all the way back to the hotel tonight too, and collapsed into bed, knackered now!