From the hotel it was a short walk past the National Museum and onto Wenceslas Square. It sounds exotic but it's not square and is just a long boulevard of shops. OK, that is a bit harsh as if you want to shop or have a McDonald's burger, then you'll find it there.

We actually stopped off at one of the small booths on the street selling sausages. Not your anaemic hotdogs but proper bratwursts, frankfurters and so on. All covered in loads of onions and a squirt of mustard if you wish. The one thin napkin you get doesn't really help to mop up the excess spillage on your face whilst trying to eat the thing. Have some wet-wipes handy! I think they even sell beer at these booths so you could have your own little bar-thing going on.

About halfway down the boulevard you will see a hotel on the right hand side with large neon signs with the two famous Czech beers of Budweiser Budvar and Pilsner Urquell on the roof.

After walking down the boulevard we meandered through the streets into the main square, where the astronomical clock, the Orloj is. It was undergoing repair that day so we couldn't see much of the clock, but the rest of the square was clear. It is a very beautiful square and when the sun was setting a soft golden light hit the buildings which brought out the colours and characteristics of the architecture and gold decorations.

After making the effort to travel to Prague, first place we dive into is an English Bar! Ironically we had to decide between the English or the Irish bar. The George and Dragon it was then. Well, we had to catch up on the scores. Unfortunately Sunderland AFC wasn't doing very well so after a couple of beers we headed back out again.

Walking through the back streets is always interesting as I prefer to do that than to follow the guide books all of the time. I did get bored of seeing so many of those Russian Doll things and the huge amount of amber everywhere.

We walked over a bridge slightly north of the centre and walked down until we got to Charles bridge. We did stop by at a micro brewery for a quick beer. It was called Vojanuv Dvur and looked very interesting but we didn't get a chance to come back before we left. Will have to leave this place till next time.

It was night time by the time we got to the bridge. With all the lighting and people wandering around I thought it was a much better place to visit at night than during the day. Admittedly the weather was pretty grey when we revisited.

We were starving by now and found a bar/restaurant called U Vejvodu. The beer is cheap and the food is cheap. There was nothing cheap about the quality as I thought it was spot on. Angela has a large leg of pork, roasted and presented on its own spit. Angela made the mistake of getting stuck into what she thought was mashed potato. Unfortunately for her it was horseradish! Very funny.

I had a platter of three meats. A quarter of a duck, two thick slices of smoke ham and two thick slices of roast pork. It truly was a meat-feast and it must have been about 7 pounds or something. If I can remember correctly it was 26Kr for a beer. The dumplings I had were lovely. Everyone always mention trying the dumplings if you go to Prague and they are not wrong.

We stayed there for most of the night and left very contented and having not spent a lot. I think it was 2077 Kr. Compare to the prices on the menus it did seem a bit more than what we thought we ate and drank, so I don't know if tax is extra, or a service charge was stuck on or whether those huge pretzels are quite expensive, but in reality it only cost the equivalent of £12.50 each and we did have a lot.

On day two we took the tram to the castle. The stop was only a few minutes walk away and cost 20 Kr. A bargain. A word of advice, don't get off at the stop called Plensky Hrad, even though that means Prague Castle. You will end up with a short walk up the hill, when all you need to do is stay on the tram and it will drop you off within yards of the place. The stop you need is called Bernice.

We bought our tickets from the hotel which makes things easy. Make sure after getting on, you validate the ticket by pushing it into the machine. Funny thing is, I didn't see any locals doing it.

We had a quick walk around the garden just outside the castle walls, before going past the guards, through the arch and into an initial square. We had a look at our map to find our bearings, tooks a few photos of the central fountain and then walked through to the cathederal area. We bought one of the passes that lets you into many of the buildings but we unfortunately lost the things after just one building. Anyway, Kathryn managed to wangle free entry into the cathederal after explaining our situation at the ticket office.

We took the challenge of making our way up the spiral staircase to get to the top of the tower. The views from the top were supposed to be stunning. It was a long way up, and the staircase is not that wide especially in the middle.

There was nearly some kind of international incident when we were near the top. We were making our way up on the outside edge where the steps have a bit more space to stand on, but some guy was coming down forcing people to move out of his way into the middle. Not too much of a problem if people are nice about it. Anyway, this guy, who may be Swiss from his accent but then again probably not, went head to head with a Brit further ahead. They exchanged a few frank views.

Anyway, the views at the top was marred by a haze over the city but you could see much of the surrounding areas and following the run of the river. Not sure if it was worth the hassle of the never ending staircase, or the tight squeeze once you are at the top. When I got to the bottom I saw loads of more elderly women preparing to climb up. I tried to give them the International non-verbal message of "Don't bother if I was you..." through a shake of the head and a pained expression but I don't know if they cottoned on.

I think me and Angela tried to do the same going up the column in Sagrada Familia in Barcelona but turned around soonafter. Take the lift if there is one!

The whole castle itself is a great day out. The ornate decorations, the gold on the side murals, the whole architecture is beautiful and is free to mill around the outside. We paid to go along the Golden Lane but I wouldn't say it was that great but in the whole scheme of things, and if you have paid for your pass and haven't lost it, then you might as well visit and have a look around as much as you can.

Once we completed the castle and come out the West Wing, we made our way down the steps towards the town.

There was a small bar on the corner just at the bottom on the steps which was extremely handy for some beers and chicken wings called U 3 ČERNÝCH RŮŽÍ. Not sure how you actually pronounce that with all those dots and stuff above the letters. What is U 3? U2 I can understand. (now been told that the pub's name means 3 black roses)

Half a litre of Kozel dark beer for under £1. Fantastic.

We found a bar and restaurant of which I didn't make a note of the name. The service was a bit indifferent and we were herded off into the back, where the non-locals seemed to be. I reckon it was the two French ladies that got the waitress all worked up. I enjoyed my food. We all tried the Becherovka as well although some of us liked it more than others. Tastes like very alcoholic medicine. I bought a litre bottle of it for home afterwards but here's a piece of advice. Don't buy it in a fancy shop, go to Tesco. You will save a couple of pounds.

My feet were killing by now.

After all the walking through the streets, I found that on street level there seemed to be quite a lot of grafitti which was quite noticeable. If you tilt your head upwards you will see the rest of the building being high decorative. I am sure they wouldn't have got away with it under the Communists. A good stiff boot up the backside and a few minutes pistol whipping.

On the Monday it was a very grey start to the day. So, what did we do? We went to Tesco for a good nose around. We then went past the National Theatre which was closed and onto Charles Bridge. I would have to say that it wasn't as nice an experience as during the night. Maybe it was the grey skies above that did it.

We made our way back through the Jewish Quarter into the main square. This time it was to the Caffreys Irish bar for Kathryn's cider fix and some expensive chips! The locals must laugh at people like us.

The work on the astronmical clock had been finished from the weekend and we were able to see the action of the puppets. I must have got confused with another clock that I had seen on TV before which had loads of things coming out and travelling around the outside. This just had a few nodding skulls and some heads that popped out of some windows. It was worth a watch and a cheer.

To whet our appetite we had a quick beer and pizza just around by the small market stalls. Then after another quick beer it was a tram ride back to the Ibis for a nap. As it was our last night we just went across the road to the Mexican restaurant called Banditos!!!

All in all a very good long weekend break. I am looking forward to going back one Springtime. I can't get over how nice and cheap the beer was. As I like trying new food anywhere, this was ideal. Very laid back sort of place, and we didn't come across any pick-pocketing events as can be read on some web site pages.

I would recommend it very much.

That blasted Easyjet journey back. Talk about being a bit enthusiatic on the marketing front, we had to endure some pratt on the loudspeaker literally reading each item from the in-flight magazine and giving us the price with such a hard sell. It really got to some of the passengers after a while with people shouting out "Shut up". It really spoilt the atmosphere and they should take notice.