Up early for the best hotel breakfast yet. The Czech’s have everyone beat in this very important aspect of travel life, with cheese infused scrambled eggs, Czech Ham, sausages, hard cooked eggs, strong coffee, all manner of pastry, butter, cheese, yoghurt, and on and on. I pigged out because I knew it would be a long day. I had signed up for the “Prague All Inclusive Walking Tour”, a six hour extravaganza that includes lunch and a 45 minute boat ride on the “Wild River”, which has been flooding Prague since the Middle Ages. I felt I had to step up my game and get away from automated tour guides.

The tour company sent someone to my hotel to collect me. A very pretty young girl (there seems to be a lot of them around here) arrived, introduced herself as Monica, and announced that she would guide me to where the tour bus stops. I had a moment of doubt, this was supposed to be a walking tour, but rather than be that whining American I decided to keep quiet and go with the flow. Monica was a regular chatterbox as we took our short walk to the old town square,
“Where do you come from?”
“Oh I love the Los Angeles”
“You have that beautiful bridge yes?”
I thought about how to respond and said,
“We don’t have anything as beautiful as the Charles Bridge here in Praha”
” oh yes it is very beautiful”
Just at that moment another very pretty young girl came zooming our way on a Segway with big fat tires. I waved to her and shouted
“Can I try?”
She smiled, zoomed over and hopped off,
“Of course you try” she moved some locks of long black hair off her face and commenced her 30 second Segway lesson,
“You go front lean like this, stop lean it back, and turn like this and like that, very easy, go ahead”
I, handed my camera to Monica,
“I know I’ll crash so please hold this”
I hopped on ad sure enough it was very easy. I made a few tentative circles and was comfortable in no time. Segway girl was laughing, her eyes were very blue, she called out,
“We can give you Segway tour if you like”
I looked at Monica, a look of concern crossed her face and I said,
“No, I’m already committed to a walking tour”
Monica smiled, I wondered if the competition for tour clients was stiff enough that some poaching happened now and then.
“Monica, would you take my picture?”
She used my camera to make a couple of images and then said,
“Here is the bus,you must go”
Segway girl handed me a hand written note,
“Here is my number, call if you want Segway tour”

The note had her name, Veronika, and a 9 digit phone number, and the word Segway.

I got on the bus and said goodbye to Monica. There were 40 or so other tourists already on board. He driver closed the doors and took off. This driver must have gone to the same school as my cab driver because he was moving that bus through time and space in ways that were just plain frightening. Prague streets are narrow and the bus was only a little narrower. That did not prevent our driver from moving full tilt through old town Prague on the way to Prague castle and the cathedral of St. Vitus. I was ready to hop off 30 seconds into the 10 minute trip.

Once we stopped everyone jumped off, and the tour guides started calling for their charges. Out of the cacophony I heard and accented voice saying “English tour here”. I followed the voice to a very handsome and noble looking fellow sporting a mane of shoulder length brown hair streaked with grey. His three day stubble and fine features were soap opera worthy. He might even do well gracing the cover of a romance novel. His name was unpronounceable so Ill just call him Rennie. He gather us together and checked our vouchers. Monica had handed me a slip of paper as I boarded the bus. It didn’t look like the other vouchers, but I gave it to Rennie anyway. He lied at it for an extra moment,
“Have you paid for the tour yet?”
“No not yet”
“Are you going to pay?
“Yes , I will. I promise”
This got a smile out of Rennie and a laugh out of the group. I could sense a good time beginning to unfold.
Rennie warned us that this was a six hour tour, and that 4 of those hours would be spent walking, he took one last headcount and we were off. It was a pretty eclectic group, a couple of ladies from Jamaica, a couple from Ireland, a lonely looking guy from Toronto, a interesting couple, Victor and Angelica, who lived in New Jersey, but were born and raised in Odessa, in the Ukraine. They both speak Russian and Ukrainian but opted for the English tour because they are now Americans. Those of you who know me well know that there is a special place in my heart for people from the Ukraine.

Rennie showed us palaces and monuments and filled us in on some of the long history of Bohemia and its rulers, from the Hapsburg’s, to the Germans, to the Austrians, and back to the Bohemians, with a Holy Roman Emperor thrown in to boot. The architecture is amazing and all original.
We saw Gothic, Renaissance, Rococo, Even some Romanesque. It was like going back in time.

We eventually made it to the courtyard of Prague Castle, and Rennie let us know about the very progressive King Rudolph of Bohemia, who was doing things for the good of the people “during Shakespeare’s time” according to Rennie. Then he offered a brain teaser for the group. “Shakespeare set one his many plays in Bohemia, does anyone know the title of the Shakespeare play set in Bohemia?” There was a beat of total silence, I let it stretch then piped up with,
“The Winters Tale!”
Every head in the group turned to me then back to Rennie who’s eyes were considerably wider,
“That is correct! The Winters Tale is set here in Bohemia, now we will go into the Cathedral of St. Vitus”

Construction on the cathedral of St. Vitus was begun in the middle if the 15th century, and completed in 1929. It is really beautiful. Built in the classic style, though the flying buttresses are somewhat more ornate than what you’ll see on the most famous gothic cathedral, Notre Dame in Paris.

As I was looking around the Cathedral Rennie caught my eye and gestured me to join him. In a low voice he asked me,
“Who are you, where are you from?”
I told him.
“You should know Miguel, that no one has ever given the correct answer to our Shakespeare question, no one”
“Well Rennie, I had an unfair advantage. I used to be a Shakespearean actor”
“Ahhh that explains it, very good very good!”
Funny how much an education in the theatre has actually helped me through the years.