Prague, Day 3

Today is day 3 in Prague - mine & Emma's last day in the old city. We decide that we will follow a walking tour in the Lonely Planet guide book of Prague. This walk will take us through the old fortress, Vysehrad.

It is another lovely day, sunny and warm. The leaves are just starting to turn. Emma, nature girl that she is, is in heaven, and I have to confess, so am I a little bit. After the hurry and crush of the crowds, it is wonderful to go off the beaten track and see lovely vistas of Prague along the Vlatava river and to see the old walls of the original fortress of Vysehrad. The walk takes us along the southern battlements and into an old cemetery by the Basilica of Saints Peter & Paul. The cemetery has been the resting place of many Czech composers, artists, sculptors, writers and intellectuals since 1869. It is filled with Art Nouveau tombstones and ringed by an absolutely lovely arched pantheon for the elite of the era. The mosaics on some of these are astounding. The best known Art Nouveau artist and Prague native, Alfons Mucha is buried here, but I didn't find his grave site.

We continue the walk to take a peek at the beautiful Basilica of Saints Peter & Paul. We couldn't go in, as they were setting up for a concert - or so it seemed - we couldn't quite make out what we were being told, but the exterior doors were lovely. Then we walked through some of the gardens and nature trails to go down to the river side. We walked by one of the few cubist villages, which really just looked like more angular buildings then normal (I guess I was expecting a building that looked like a Picasso or Braque painting). Then we continued along the river up to one of the best known of the old coffee houses in Prague, Karina Slavia, which has been home to writers and radicals (Vlaclav Havel was a frequenter of this coffee house before he became President of the Czech Republic). We enjoyed a great dessert with coffee. Then we had to part - I back to London, and Emma to wait for her share ride to Dresden.

So ends my weekend in Prague.