Four days of gothic spires, cold mornings on the bridge, and more beer than is strictly advisable.
Land late afternoon, and walk straight into the best light Prague does all year.
Airport Express bus straight to the main station, about 35 minutes. Buy from the driver, coins or card.
Drop bags and go straight back out — you want to be in the square before the light goes.
The Týn Church spires against a navy sky, the Astronomical Clock doing its hourly thing, and the crowds thinning as it gets cold.
A proper Czech beer hall: tank Pilsner poured five ways, schnitzel, and no ceremony whatsoever. Loud, cheap, excellent.
Come back past eleven. Same clock, no selfie sticks, and the whole square lit like a stage set.
One early alarm buys you the most photographed place in the country, empty.
Genuinely worth the alarm. Mist off the Vltava, thirty baroque statues, and for about forty minutes you'll have it more or less to yourselves. By nine it's a market.
Cross to the little quarter on the far bank and thaw out over coffee before the hill.
The largest castle complex in the world, and the cathedral inside it is the real event — go for the Mucha window on the north side. Add Golden Lane if the queue's civilised.
Up on the plateau above the river, looking back down over every bridge in the city. Plastic cups, wooden benches, best view in Prague for about £2.
Butchers' hall turned canteen. Point at meat, get given meat. Order the tartare.
The Prague locals actually use, then a very good bar.
Saturday only, along the embankment. Coffee, cheese, hot wine by ten in the morning, and no tourists at all.
The other castle — a hilltop fort with a neo-gothic basilica, a cemetery full of famous Czechs, and views back along the river. Almost empty on a Saturday.
Leafy, residential, full of the places locals eat. Wander Riegrovy sady after.
Tiny, dark, absurdly good, and impossible to get into without booking. Absinthe done properly, if you're brave.
One last climb, one last dumpling.
A little railway up through the orchards, then a mini Eiffel Tower at the top. 299 steps, and on a clear morning you can see the whole of Bohemia.
Walk down the other side into the quietest corner of the city — a mill wheel, the Lennon Wall, and the yellow penguins.
Svíčková, dumplings, one final Pilsner. You've earned it.
From Hlavní nádraží, 35 minutes, every half hour.
Four days, one very cold bridge at sunrise, and a photograph you'll actually print.