What to do in Kolín District

The Old Town's narrow streets and cobbled alleys may be crammed with fabulously varied architecture, intriguing restaurants and wonderful bars. But they're also packed with tourists. So many visitors to Prague end up making their way to the Old Town Square (or Staromestske Namesti) just to get away from the busy intensity of the rest of town. That, and the fact that it happens to be the most beautiful square in Europe.

Prague's pride-and-joy – the 600-year old Charles Bridge, built in the reign of Charles IV, who gave it its name – doesn't just join the Prague's two halves together. As the only bridge to span the long, broad and turbulent Vltava River for many centuries, it was the sole connection between east and west Europe. Prague flourished, in no small part, because of the traffic flowing along its 488-metre length.

When you join the thronging crowds at the foot of Prague's Old Square Town Hall – to wait patiently for Death to come and strike the hour, at the Prague Orloj – don't curse the throng too much. You're actually getting very good value from this marvellous medieval mechanical wonder, the world's oldest working astronomical clock. It doesn't just give you one time to set your watch by. It manages three. Back in the days of the clock's makers – Mikuláš of Kadaň and Jan Šindel in the 15th century – you could make that important appointment in any one of Common Time, Old Czech Time, or Babylonian Time. Confused you would be.

There's so much history worked into the streets and squares of Prague, that it's sometimes easy to forget that history of a most dramatic sort was made here, only a few short years ago. And one of the places most connected to those events – the anti-communist Velvet Revolution in 1989 that toppled the regime, and eventually the Iron Curtain – is Wenceslas Square. A central meeting place, shopping centre and rushing tourist hub, it has also been a horse market, a rallying point for Czech national revival (in the 19th century) and a scene of battle, in the Prague Uprising of the Second World War.

Prague Castle floats over the Old Town of Prague like a mirage on the hill – a more fabulous refection of the already-remarkable city below. It looks less like a castle and more like a palace fit for emperors. And that's exactly what it was, as the regal home for many Holy Roman Emperors. But there's not just one palace here. There are four. And naturally the Holy Roman Emperor required something more elevating than a church – so the St.Vitus Cathedral is enclosed within the Castle's walls, throwing its green copper spire into the sky.

If you wander towards the small Alois Jirasek Square, which looks out over the leaping weir of the Vltava River, you may find yourself doing a double-take. There, right where the long formal terrace of Rasinovo Nabrezi meets the river, its last two buildings are clasped in dance – Fred-and-Ginger style. They appear to be about to twirl out across the bridge. This 'couple' is in fact one building, the Tancici Dum, or Dancing House. And its flowing quirky curves have inspired smiles (or cast frowns) on the faces of residents and visitors alike, ever since it was unveiled back in 1996.