A Prague day from Old Town to a Vyšehrad sunset

A 1914 art nouveau coffee house with majolica-tiled walls and coffered ceilings. Order a Viennese breakfast — eggs, ham, fresh bread, three mustards, strong coffee. The tiled children's mosaics are worth a look on the way out.

The square where the 600-year-old astronomical clock strikes hourly — a procession of apostles at the top of each hour, the skeleton pulling the rope. Arrive for the 11:00 strike to beat the noon crowd.

The 14th-century pedestrian bridge across the Vltava, thirty statues of saints added in the 17th and 18th centuries along both sides. Busker quality varies by time of day; the mornings are the least chaotic.

Europe's oldest active synagogue, 13th century. A combined ticket covers six synagogues and the old cemetery — 12,000 headstones in graves layered up to twelve deep. The Pinkas Synagogue's wall lists 77,297 Czech Holocaust victims by name.

A classic Prague pub for lunch. Svíčková (beef sirloin in a cream-and-vegetable sauce) with bread dumplings, goulash and Pilsner Urquell on tap. Wooden tables, long benches, cash only.

A ruined hilltop fortress south of town with Dvořák's tomb in its cemetery and a view that opens the whole Vltava below. Arrive for sunset; the stone walls glow and the light holds for an hour after.

A Czech butchery with a lunch counter by day and a proper dinner service by night. Cuts of beef roasted that morning, sliced to order. Share a tomahawk steak between two; mushroom sauce, fries, and a good Moravian red.