Culture, contrasts and surprises - Antonin Dvorak, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and John Lennon

Friday was a beautiful, warm day in Prague, in contrast to the icy chill of some previous days. We set off early and walked to the Antonin Dvorak Museum. Saw displays of orginal manuscripts, concert programs, family photos and viewed Dvorak's own piano, at which he would have composed many great works.Bought a CD of a Czech performance of his Stabat Mater. Then another long walk to the Vyšehrad, the cemetery perched high on a hill and overlooking the river, containing the ornate tombs of Dvorak, Smetana, Dusek and other Prague notables.

After lunch we made our way across the river and hopped on the Petřīn Funicular Railway.At the top is the Petřīn Lookout tower (a 62 metre high Eiffel Tower lookalike, built in 1891 for the Prague Exposition).We had a long, rambling walk among the gardens before rejoining the road below Prague castle and making our way down to St Nicholas Church (another St Nicholas, not the St Nicholas in the Old Town Square that we referred to a few days ago). This is a real 'wow' church and is regarded as one of Europe's finest baroque buildings. It is absolutely stunning. Completed in 1755, it contains Europe's largest ceiling fresco and countless oversized statues - you are almost blinded by the colours, especially the gold leaf over so much of the ornamentation. Mozart himself played the 2500-pipe organ when he visited in 1787 and was honoured with a requiem mass after his death in December 1791.

Next we went looking for the John Lennon wall and on the way stumbed across a little bridge over the Čertovka tributary, adorned with hundreds and hundreds of padlocks placed there by young couples as a sign of their enduring love (echoing Rome's Ponte Milvio). We then found the John Lennon wall, commemorating the man who became a pacifist hero for young Czechs after his murder in 1980.

Back home across the Charles Bridge, then out last night for a delicious meal in an open-air restaurant, before some night shots of the Charles Bridge and the castle, then back home to bed. Today - a last look around this wonderful city before our 6 hour train ride to Budapest tomorrow.