We walked along and up under the funicular - out of order for servicing again! - and along the side of the hill aiming for the Eiffel Tower. The views are mostly unobstructed here, especially over towards the cathedral/castle, as it looms over the rest of the city. You can see all the bridges, too, including Karlov Most. When we repeated this walk later on the trip, there was a guy doing his t'ai chi/yoga there, facing the sun. I was quite jealous - what a location! Anyway, we reached the bottom of the way up. The path to the top here is steps - sort of - and distinctly treacherous. They seem to be doing some restorative work to the wall here, and it is to be hoped that this extends to the pathway, too. We clambered up like mountaineers and joined the main pathway from the north up to the top, where the various attractions are located: the Eiffel Tower, the Bludiste Mirror Maze, etc.

Once we'd finished up there, we continued along the path, spotting a red squirrel on the way. The scenery is beautiful, and the kids happily chased multi-coloured leaves, which were being blown from the path as we passed.

We went all the way around the contour of the hill, passing by Loreta, down a bit, and then up some steps, which takes you to join the main route down to the castle.

It's a lovely walking place I'd recommend to everyone. That's probably why we did it twice!

We wandered along, following the contours of the hill, and were able to join up with the castle complex again.

The Rozhledna is a one-fifth-sized replica of the Eiffel Tower that was built for the Prague Exposition in 1891 in a futile attempt to recapture some of the shock that had swept Paris two years before at the original’s unveiling at the 1889 Paris Expo. The 40Kč entrance ticket and 299 steps give you access to fantastic views over the city. Another relic of the 1891 Expo is the Bludiste, a mock medieval castle folly that, for 30Kč, gives you access to a none-too-complicated mirror maze and an amusingly distorting hall of mirrors.

At the heart of this, somewhat bizarre, complex is the Kostel Sv Vavrince (Church of St Lawrence), the latest, and doubtless least impressive, of a series of churches that are said to have inhabited this spot since 991. The church backs on to the Hladove Zed (Hunger Wall). An early example of public works much admired by the Communists, the wall was constructed during the reign of Emperor Charles IV (1346-1378) by the poor of the city in exchange for food. Dotted all along the length of the wall are the Krizova Cesta (Station of the Cross), small chapels containing paintings of Jesus walking to his death.

The summit of the hill is best reached from the Ujezd in Mala Strana, via the Lanova Draha (Funicular Railway), also constructed for the 1891 Expo. This was originally powered by filling the water tank of the carriage at the top of the hill, emptying the water tank of the carriage at the bottom, and allowing gravity to do its job. This ingenious piece of engineering was replaced with an electric system in the 1960s, allowing modern-day passengers to proceed to the top of the hill for the same price as the bus. You can even take a break from the excitement at the restaurant at the Nabozizek stop halfway up the hill.

Sometimes you just can't beat the sheer joy of escaping to peace and serenity of lush parklands, a million miles from the tourist crush of Prague, especially when it's reached on a whimsical piece of modern engineering for the price of a bus ticket and even if it is in the shadow of a mini-Eiffel tower.