This is the river seen from underneath. Podolí runs along the east bank of the Vltava below the Vyšehrad rock, and the whole walk is a study in looking up — at a cliff, at twin spires, at one of Prague's best modern buildings. Three and a half kilometres on the flat, best in the afternoon, when the light comes across the water onto the embankment.
Start at Výtoň, under the railway bridge, and look back at the Vyšehrad rock rising straight off the river with the basilica's twin spires on top. Everyone climbs it; from down here you get the picture the climbers miss. Just past it, on the Rašín embankment, are the cubist villas of the 1910s — Josef Chochol's faceted facades, a five-minute architectural detour.
Then walk the embankment south. Cross to Veslařský ostrov, the rowing island, for the calm arm of the river, or stay on the bank. The walk's last note is the Plavecký stadion Podolí, the 1960s swimming stadium set in concrete against the cliff — swim if it's open, look if it isn't. The tram from Kublov runs you back along the water.
