Anyway, we got out of there and onto the metro about 11:30 and headed for town. Now that we are back on a Top Deck tour, they always seem to stay a bit further out of town. This isn't too bad though, as the hotels are close to the metro and Top Deck provide tickets.
We'd had a good couple of days exploring the beautiful city of Prague, so we felt we had seen a great deal. It was obvious that we needed to cross the river and visit the castle. The stair climb to the top was pretty hard after having done very limited exercise during the trip. We enjoyed the many different buskers along the way, especially the trio playing classical in their old style outfits.
We decided to take on the bell tower's spiral staircase at Prague Castle. This was hard work, but certainly worth the effort and the stunning views we encountered at the end of the big climb. As a separate ticket, we bought the short trip castle ticket, which allowed us to enter four of the eight castle buildings. We didn't really want to be there all day, so the short trip was about right.
After going inside one of the main churches, we were surprised with the changing of the guard ceremony. The police bike part was a little like synchronised swimming and good to watch. Got that on film. Woot! It was a good atmosphere around the place, with the band pumping it out during the entire ceremony.
The final section of the four part ticket was called the Golden Lane. This was basically an area in the backstreets where shops were set up behind glass, showing equipment and costumes of the day when people lived there. It also housed medieval styled amour and an actual interactive crossbow section.
Rich: I had a go, but the first shot totally missed the target. Second shot, a slight improvement - it hit the outer ring for 40 points, but the final shot totally missed again. I'm the world's worst crossbow man. No one likes a smart arse...next guy, straight in and bang bullseye! Move on buddy!
It was around 3pm by this stage, so it was definitely time to head towards the Old Town area for a nice long lunch. We sat at a fabulous restaurant called Hotel U Prince which had a massive outdoor eating area and was very close to the Astronomical Clock. This was a very good place for people watching and kicking back.
We originally wanted to hang in town and stay in the square for the Germany Italy UEFA Cup semi final, but we were pretty tired. We opted to go back to our hotel for a rest for a couple of hours and forged a plan to meet with others later on. We sat down at the outdoor restaurant at the hotel and had a few drinks. We once again met some nice guys from Germany and the Czech Republic, who we all chatted to for quite a while.
Unfortunately the bar closed at 10pm, so we had to leave and go to another place nearby which was actually easy to find. We wanted to see the rest of the match and couldn't believe that they finished up so early. Soccer is big here and is shown in so many places, but not at the 'fun police' hotel!
The Germans were the tournament favourites, but were defeated in a commanding performance by the Italians. The final is in a couple of nights when we get into Amsterdam, so we are definitely going for the Italians over the Spaniards.
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