Right next to the Municipal House is the 15th century Powder Tower built originally to serve as an entrance to the Old Town and later commissioned to hold gun powder during conflicts in the 17th century (hence the name).

The Powder Tower led us into Old Town where we found this restaurant with outside seating.

The owner had thoughtfully lined the seats with fur. Looked mighty inviting to our cold, aching feet, but it wasn't lunchtime yet. We pressed on and came to this open-air market that's open every day and stocks everything from flowers to wooden toys to clothes and condiments. We bought two kinds of fudge at the shop below.

We passed by and passed through many doorways such as these on our way to the Square. We had walked into the building through the far doorway and found ourselves in a big courtyard with the center open to the sky. When we walked out the little passage we saw the entrance above.

It was obvious that the Czech took immense pride in their city and their buildings. The centuries old facades of their buildings were scrupulously maintained. We saw scaffoldings and construction sheets on many of the buildings. Apparently the maintenance work goes on all year round except during the winters and during peak tourist season.

The city streets always wore a just-swept look. One sight that was memorable was the one of two city workers carefully prying cigarette butts out of the millions of crevices on the cobbled streets with their brooms on to the pans.

And there were many, many cigarette butts. As we walked around, we saw so many people smoking that N blurted out, with his palm against his nose, "Mama, this is such a smoking city!"

The city is also replete with narrow streets such as those below.

It is so easy to imagine Sir Lancelot galloping up this street or villagers click-clacking their way up and down these streets in their wooden clogs.

We meandered our way through the doorways and the streets and came here, to the Old Town Square.