The last day in Prague

Our first stop was near Hradcany, which is close to the Royal castle complex. This place is simply stunning. I would say that this was more of a full blown city and not just a castle. Don’t get me wrong; I know most castles could survive for years if attacked just on what they had behind the walls. But this place is immense and we didn’t even have time to see all of it. Some of my favorite places were the conservatory, the cathedral and of course the amazing views off of the west side of the palace. Truly an amazing place, but I think the pictures can do it more justice than I can.
After about two hours up there we made our way down to the city to have a little lunch. We ate right at the entry way to the bridge and of course they had a place that had a mojito fro six people. I have just a couple of questions to ask about that, I mean logistically this is a nightmare. Because if it is six of my friends we are either going to be unhappy or that glass is going to be the size of a smart car. In either case we could have a problem. Additionally, are we not talking about a lot of backwash here? OK I have digressed long enough, back to actually talking about the city.
We headed over to a tram we saw the first day we were there. We were pretty sure this took us up to the monastery, but to be honest we were not sure. Come to find out it did take us there and we could use our multi day metro pass to get there as well. This was working out great!
I will have to say that this was the most mysterious place that we went. On top of the mountain was an observation deck that looked like a mini Eiffel tower, a monastery and an observatory. What made it odd was the entire place was surrounded by fortified walls with arrow slots. There we also several buildings that we could not see, but they looked shady in a secret kind of way. Outside of the walls was a series of monuments dedicated to a series of religious leaders. While on the train we heard that this was a place that was actually used to detain prisoners of war as late as the civil war which happened at the fall of the eastern bloc. All in all it was a very odd place.
On our way down we saw a dirt path with a sign for a monument. We followed it and I will have to say it was a bit remote. Once we got there the view was wonderful. We actually found ourselves above the castle and found a way in through a different entrance. After spending some time there we headed back down for the second time. Across the Charles bridge we made our way over to the marinate shop where Sandy picked up some gifts.
By now it was around 4:30pm, we spent the rest of the day drinking coffee, beer and just enjoying the sunny afternoon. We were in the old town portion of Prague. Originally this was settled by Jewish immigrants. It is an amazing plaza that is full of cafes and makes for great people watching. Well I think we are all caught up at this point. Hope everyone is enjoying the blog and I look forward to seeing all of you when I get home!