Let's Go Europe 2019. Harvard Student Agencies

       i Event ticket prices vary; wheelchair accessible

       SHAKESPEARE AND SONS

      U Lužického semináře 91/10, Malá Strana; 257 531 894; www.shakes.cz; open daily 11am-8pm

      Normally, even the best English-language bookstores in non-English-speaking countries pale in comparison to your average Barnes and Noble back home. However, Shakespeare and Sons, which is unaffiliated with but of a similar quality to the famous Shakespeare

      and Co. in Paris, breaks this trend. The store’s selection, while not as large as a Barnes and Noble, is incredibly well curated, meaning that you’re just as likely to find the debut novel of the latest literary sensation as you are works by every big name in the Western canon. The poetry, philosophy, and second-hand collections are particularly impressive, and the Czech section is impressively particular, containing almost the entire bibliographies of national sweethearts, Kafka and Kundera.

       i Books from 200Kč; limited wheelchair accessibility

      LANDMARKS

       SS. CYRIL AND METHODIUS CATHEDRAL

      Resslova 9a, Nove Mesto; 224 920 686; open Tu-Sa 9am-5pm

      Quentin Tarantino would have you believe that Brad Pitt was the most notorious Nazi killer of the Second World War, but in truth, it was a group of Czech paratroopers, who, in May 1942, assassinated the architect of the Holocaust, Reinhard Heydrich. Unfortunately, the Czechs didn’t have much time to celebrate. Three weeks later, the Germans, who had launched a vicious retaliatory attack on the Czechs, found the assassins hiding out in the crypt of the Ss. Cyril and Methodius Cathedral, and after a heated battle, the remaining paratroopers, in order to avoid capture, took their own lives. Today, the bullet-hole ridden crypt serves as an exhibition and memorial dedicated to the heroes of the assassination. The cathedral represents a part of Czech history that tourists often overlook.

       i Admission 75Kč, reduced 35Kč; no wheelchair accessibility

       VYSEHRAD

      V Pevnosti 159/5b, Vinohrady; 241 410 348; www.praha-vysehrad.cz; open daily Nov-Mar 9:30am-5pm, Apr-Oct 9:30am-6pm

      Recommended by nearly every local we met, Vysehrad, a tenth-century fortress, sits atop a rocky promontory overlooking the Vltava River, and is the most idyllic spot in the city. Vysehrad served as the royal seat of Bohemia for a glorious 40 years before its role was usurped by Prague Castle. Today, the castle building itself no longer exists, but the infinitely tranquil parks and what, in our opinion, is the most stunning church in Prague still do. The fortress walls also contain the eleventh-century Rotunda of St. Marti, which is one of the city’s oldest surviving buildings, the underground Casements, which store six of the original Charles Bridge statues, and a cemetery, home to the graves of Antonin Dvorak and Alfons Mucha, and the Slavin tomb.

       i Free entry to Vysehrad fortress; Church of St. Peter and St Paul 50Kč, reduced 30Kč; The Brick Gate, Casemates, Gorlice Hall and Permanent Exhibition 60Kč, reduced 30Kč; last entry 30min. before closing; limited wheelchair accessibility

       CHARLES BRIDGE

      Karluv most, Staré Mesto; www.prague.cz/charles-bridge; open daily 24hr

      During the high season, a walk across the Charles Bridge is not so much a walk as it is a swim through a sea of bodies, so the perfect time to visit is early in the morning after a night out. At 5:31am on July 9, 1357, the Czechs’ beloved King Charles IV laid the first stone of the bridge, doing so at that exact time because it formed an auspicious “numerical bridge” (1357 9/7 5:31). The bridge once served as the royal passageway from the Old Town to the Prague Castle, but nowadays it’s occupied by street vendors and caricature artists. Impressive Baroque statues line the sides of the bridges but these statues are actually replicas and the originals can be found at the Vysehrad fortress. Oh, we forget to mention that the bridge is allegedly the pickpocket capital of Europe, so if you’re looking for a good place to pickpocket, you should probably choose somewhere less mainstream.

       i Free; wheelchair accessible

       JEWISH QUARTER

      Josefov, Stare Mesto; 222 317 191; www.jewishmuseum.cz; open summer Tu-Sa 9am-6pm, winter 9am-4:30pm

      Just north of Old Town Square, the Jewish Quarter is one of the most historic sites in the city, home to five synagogues and the Old Jewish cemetery. A standard ticket (Ticket B, 330Kc) will give you access to most of the sights, including the cemetery as well as the Pinkas and Spanish synagogues, but access to the Old-New Synagogue—the oldest synagogue in Europe—can only be secured through the purchase of Ticket A+B (500Kc). The Old-New Synagogue isn’t much to look at, and thus, if you’re on a budget, Ticket B will suit you just fine. The Pinkas Synagogue’s walls are covered in the names of the 78,000 Czech-Jews who died in the Holocaust, and the exhibits upstairs showcase drawings created by children from the Thereseinstadt concentration camp.

       i With Old-New Synagogue 500Kč, reduced 340Kč; without Old-New Synagogue 330Kč, reduced 220Kč; limited wheelchair accessibility

       JOHN LENNON WALL

      Velkopřevorské náměstí, Malá Strana; open daily 24hr

      A visit to the John Lennon Wall is obligatory. Created in the late 1980s as a rebuke to the country’s communist regime, which had banned western music, the wall symbolized the desire amongst Czech youth for “Lennonism, Not Leninism.” Following the fall of communism, however, the wall transformed from a counterculture icon to a fun spot for tourists and locals to spray-paint messages of peace and love, the most memorable of which is a mural of an Ewok doing the black power salute, captioned “Fuck Wars.” It’s just a minute from Charles Bridge, which means you really have no excuse for not checking it out, unless, of course, you are virulently pro-war.

       i Free; wheelchair accessible

       OLD TOWN SQUARE AND ASTRONOMICAL CLOCK

      Stareměstská náměstí, Staré Město; 236 002 629; clock tower open M 11am-10pm, Tu-Su 9am-10pm

      Old Town Square is effectively the heart of Prague, and the area’s history and architectural beauty make it a compulsory visit. In the middle of the square sits a memorial dedicated to the Czech hero Jan Hus, who was one of the first people to do the now unthinkable act of giving the Catholic Church a hard time. You’ll also find the double-towered, Gothic Church of Our Lady before Týn, as well as the one and only Astronomical Clock, in front of which hundreds of people gather outside to watch puppets representing Death, Vanity, Greed, and Pleasure jump out of the clock face and stiffly move a few limbs for a couple of minutes each hour. It’s not worth the hype, but something you might as well see if you’re in the square.

       i Clock tower 120Kč, reduced 70Kč; wheelchair accessible

       PRAGUE CASTLE

      119 08 Prague 1, Hradcany; 224 373 368; www.hrad.cz; castle complex open daily Tu-Sa 6am-10pm, historical buildings 9am-5pm

      Castle,