Here we were walking down a small side street near the castle called "Novy Svet" (New World). This innocuous house was the home of the great astronomers Tycho Brahe and (later) Johannes Kepler. Tycho followed us around to different parts of Prague, including the Observatory, the Technical Museum (where some of his tools are displayed), and the big church in the Old Town Square where he is buried.

A little past Novy Svet was the ornate Loreto Church (below right), used by the Catholic Church to convert the populace back to Catholicism from the Hussite Protestantism. It houses a supposed copy of the home of Mary, brought back from the Holy Land by the Crusaders.

Up the hill a short walk was the very lovely Strahov Monastery, with its twin towers.

From the Strahov, we walked around the edge of the large park bordering Mala Strana and Hradcany called Petrin Hill, a great location for tremendous views over Prague and from which to watch the fireworks.

Prague at twilight, looking over the castle neighborhood and Mala Strana,
from the grounds of the Strahov Monastery.