We stayed at the Crown Plaza Hotel and right in front was a city square where the tram line ended. We could catch the tram and go 2 exits to the Metro station to catch the underground. From there, it was only 2 stops to the castle and 5 stops to the museum and center of the historical part of town.
We primarily ate Italian food for 2 reasons: #1 we couldn't read the Czech menus posted in the windows of many restaurants and #2 we both love Italian food! So it worked out nicely.
The main tourist/historical area is so clean and perfect I couldn't quite shake the feeling that I was visiting an upscale Disneyland or back lot of Universal Studios. How sad is that? I'm finally faced with authentic history and can only liken it to full-color fabricated commercial shadows. Oh oh, mustn't get to Kafkaesque (does it still warrant capitalization or can it finally take its place next to words like berzerk?) Anyway, I'm seriously digressing...
Ok, back to Prague, (which seems to have a way of doing lexical things to people.) The most startling thing to me was the incredible architecture. Everything from Gothic to Art Nouveau can be found and offers a startling contrast to the Communist Block era blocks. When we did take the tram off into the opposite direction we found the not-so-well-kept part of town where graffiti, not sgraffiti reigns supreme and we didn't feel particularly safe after dark.
So, we stayed near the historical area and just remained mesmerized by the layers upon layers of artistic designs that spread out in every direction.
We came home to Istanbul on Sunday, April 27 and were very glad to have gone. It was relaxing, educational and one of the most photogenic places I've ever been fortunate enough to see.