Charles Bridge belongs to whoever gets there first, and at seven in the morning that can be you. This is the short version of the famous crossing — bridge, island, channel, wall — done at the only hour it's worth doing, before the crowd makes the statues impossible to see.
Come up at Staroměstská and head straight for the river. Walk through the Old Town Bridge Tower and onto Karlův most while it's still nearly empty: thirty baroque saints in a row, the castle catching the first light upstream, the boards underfoot loud in the quiet. Don't rush it — this is the whole point of the early start. Touch the brass St John of Nepomuk plaque if you want the luck; mostly just walk.
Drop off the south side onto Kampa, where the mill wheel still turns on the Čertovka channel and the island stays green and slow. Follow the narrow water — the over-named "Venice of Prague" — past the houseboats to the Lennon Wall, a real artefact of dissent under a thick coat of present-day paint. Malostranská metro is a few minutes on, and the bridge behind you is now solid with people.
