I just have no luck with the weather – another cloudy day but at least not rainy and we headed out early again to beat the crowds. We walked to Charles Bridge again and brought our tripod along to take photos of us two 🙂 It was again really quiet on the bridge so we were able to have photos without other tourists, totally worth getting up early for it!

The side streets are so beautiful with those cobblestones street and pastel-colored houses that even with no blue sky and sun still looked charming.

This is the hotel we stayed in – Hotel U Pava:

There are so many cute houses that we couldn’t resist to stop and take a least a photo or two like this one…a restaurant.

I did my homework on locating the best photo spots in Prague and I found this very useful website, it even provides the GPS coordinates to reach the exact spot: https://www.hdrshooter.com/top-5-spots/top-5-photography-spots-prague/

This really saved us time to look for the spots!

We went back to the spot located near our hotel where we walked out to the riverbank for photos with Charles Bridge on the background.

There were many ducks but no sign of swans as they are up on the other side of the river.

One passed by…

Almost near the same place, there is a platform for docking and boarding boats but no boats were there.

Next, we walked up to Letna Park for the view of the 4 bridges that we saw in postcards. See the website for the exact GPD coordinates to get there.

On our way down from the park, the swans are on this side of the river:

We walked back down to our hotel for interior photos and I saw this beautiful peacock sign, I wondered why the owner chose the peacock?

Interior of Hotel U Pava:

This short but beautiful hallway with the stained glass ceiling:

We dropped off our tripod, had breakfast, and went out again for more photos. This was taken from Mánes Bridge overlooking Charles Bridge.

We walked to the Astronomical Clock again to see if we have any luck…..

Still covered in scaffold so I took out the postcard to replace it, it is how it would look like…LOL!

For lunch, we decided to have Vietnamese noodle soup (Pho) at Remember Vietnamese and it was a long walk to get there. On the way, we passed by many beautiful buildings like this one:

This is a shopping mall with pink wall!

A cute little clock tower:

When we got there, the restaurant was almost packed with locals so it’s pretty popular. I ordered the pho with raw beef, unlike the ones we had back home, the noodle is just the normal rice noodle and the beef wasn’t thinly sliced. However, the broth was very tasty and probably no MSG as I wasn’t thirsty afterward.

Jason ordered the pho with cooked beef and also ordered a sizzling beef with peppers. It was pretty good! Our lunch cost only 500 CZK.

On our long way to walk back, we passed the mall again and checked out the local vendors there. This vendor was grilling huge pieces of pork!

It was very lively there with music, food trucks, and craft stalls.

The chimney cake:

Another tower!

The next photo spot was at Vltava Waterfront to get photos of the other side of Charles Bridge with the lesser town as the backdrop.

On our way to the Dancing House, we saw this row of colorful houses:

A historic tram (I believe they serve food in those trams?) passed by and the waiter was waving at me.

The Dancing House!

This was as far as we walked and turned back toward the Charles Bridge direction. In the middle of the river, it’s Shooters Island where you can rent those paddle boats but it was cold that day so we didn’t.

Legions’ Bridge:

Which side of the bridge do you like more?

I lost count of how many times we were on Charles Bridge – it’s just so beautiful and the views were incredible of both sides!

 

I can never get tired of this view!

Charles Bridge is always packed with tourists except the early morning.

As you walked toward the end of Charles Bridge facing the castle side and turn left, there’s a flee market there and more street performances.

This one was a play which looked funny!

From here, you can see the side of Charles Bridge and the Charles Bridge Tower….I think the castle side looked more pretty.

This little canal reminded me of Venice especially when a tour boat passing by.

Souvenir shopping, I got those extremely cute matchboxes magnet, those are way better than the made in China looking plastic magnets!

Under the Charles Bridge has this romantic kissing painting on the wall:

What a beautiful courtyard of a restaurant:

A flower shop I supposed?

We walked back out to the main street facing St. Nicholas Church.

We decided to try out the chimney cake at a cafe next to the Lesser Town Bridge Tower, I think the cafe is called Trdlo. We passed this cafe a few times and there’s always a line so must be good.

 

My chimney cake with vanilla ice cream…yum…..the chimney cake is crispy on the outside sprinkled with sugar while the vanilla ice cream was very smooth texture, creamy, and not too sweet. We both loved it!

As we were finishing off the chimney cake and walked to St. Nicholas Church, it was a miracle that the sky was clearing out that we could see the blue sky for the first time in Prague!

We quickly finished the chimney cake and headed back toward Charles Bridge….the sun actually came out too!

A cute gate that I quickly snapped a photo as we walked by.

The blue sky!!!

We were super excited to “retake” the photos!!!

Ah the warmth of the sun, how I missed you!

Then, we ran down to the side of the bridge for more photos.

We wanted to head back to the riverbank that we took the photos in the early morning but it was completely in shadow so not good spot for afternoon photos! Also, the clouds rolled back in so that was our short moment of blue sky and sun in Prague…..better than nothing right? As we headed toward our hotel, we saw a line of people standing there and we were curious as to what are they doing. The narrowest street with a traffic light for pedestrians that I have seen in photos of but no idea where it is located is actually within steps away from our hotel!!! Search in Google Maps “Nejužší pražská ulička” and that’s where it is!

This stairway actually is so narrow that can only fit one person across!

After nonstop walking and the surprise findings, we took a short rest in the hotel before heading out for dinner at St. Martin. I had the duck breast and it was good except the sauce is salty which is as expected for typical Czech cuisine.

Jason ordered the grilled steak which was good without the salty sauce.

For dessert, I have seen photos of a “plant pot” so I wanted that.  I showed the picture to the waiter and he said it’s cheesecake, haha never expected it. It was actually really good!!!

After the quick dinner 770 CZK including 10% tips, we walked to the Old Town Bridge Tower for night photos and it was raining again 🙁

At the top of the tower, it is open space with no ceiling so we use our umbrella to keep the camera and lens dry. Fortunately, it was just drizzling and not windy. Also, at the top of the tower is limited space with just a narrow walkway wrapping around the tower to provide different views at the 4 sides. The width of the walkway is barely enough for a tripod so whenever people passing by, we had to be extra careful and hold on tight onto our tripod. The iconic Charles Bridge view up from the tower:

While we were waiting for the blue hour, Jason held the spot so I can go around the 4 sides of the tower to take photos. This is from the right side of the tower from the Charles Bridge:

The side opposite of the Charles Bridge:

Left side of the bridge:

As buildings started to turn on their lights, I walked back to Jason, setup the camera, and just waited.

Finally, the blue hour! And then we heard noises of a Korean and a Chinese tour groups walking up the stairs, yikes!!! It became harder to take a long exposure shot because whenever someone passing by, the floor shakes grrrrrr! Some of the tourists were very rude, they just pull out their crappy phone camera and sometimes the flash fires (OMG) and totally ruined my photo! Fortunately, those “duck” tours came and go quickly so I was able to get some descent shots.

When Charles Bridge and Prague Castle lit up, it was magical!

Night shots of the other sides of the tower:

We weren’t done yet, we headed to Vlatava Waterfront for more night photos and the rain stopped. This is my other favorite night photography spots in Prague with the full view of the side of the Charles Bridge and the castle. Also, if it’s a calm day, you might get a nice reflection! There was a little bit of wind so not a perfect reflection:

We were glad that we did the photo spot scouting during the day so we know exactly where to go for night photos. Prague day and night is so beautiful even without the blue sky and white clouds! Someday, I wish I can see the full Astronomical Clock instead from the side or postcard….Prague, I will be back!