Steel is very bouncy

So after a very late night last night (drunk brits sadly get everywhere) we did manage to haul ourselves out of bed at a reasonable time this morning, and head off for the Petrin tower. This involved a tram and a fenicular railway both of which were covered by our travel passes. I love the Prague system, you only have to get your ticket out the first time you use it, when it gets a date stamp. After that you just get on and off as you like. They do random ticket checks, and I was very pleased to discover they handle dumb tourists very well. I mistook the ticket checker for a sales man so just walked past, even more so when he tried to grab me. To his credit he fiured out the problem and said in perfect English, "Stop, ticket check". I can't imagine UK transport police handling it like that, or being so willing to accept our apology. I guess having a valid ticket helps.

The Petri tower is lovely. A very pretty grey steel structure with two viewing areas, one at the top and the other half way up. There is no lift, just a lot of stairs, but they do have several seats on the way up. The first landing has an external balcony and provides pretty amazing views of Prague, but for those with a good head for heights and strong legs it is well worth pushing on to the top. The upper viewing area is considerably smaller than the lower on and fully enclosed. It does have some large windows you can open to take pictures, and if you've made it up there you will want to. The view is stunning. To see all the bridges over the river was magical. I also discovered the cathedral. For some reason every where we have been before, the cathedral has been hidden. A great shame, it is a dark gothic building with wonderful flying butresses. I hope we will be able to find time to have a better look at it, but we are hoping for snow, at which point tomorrow will be fully booked going back to places we have already seen and know we want to see in the snow.

After taking the railway back down the hill we found we are actually staying very close to Charles bridge, and on the side with all the good viewing points. Sadly good pictures from the end of the bridge are impossible, there is a constant flood of tourists. Still once you start hunting around the back streets there are some good photo oportunities. Unfortunately I forgot to take any of the with my phone so todays picture is the Petrin tower as seen from our balcony. Which can be seen in the panoram brochure from the tower. Cool.

Now I need to work out how much clothing I need to not freeze on the way to dinner.