Did Someone Say “Segway”?!

Cassie: Today has been so much fun. After a super leisurely buffet breakfast at the hotel, Graeme and I went on a 3hr segway tour around the city of Prague and it was awesome. Made more awesomer because we were the only two in the tour group so we got a private tour of the city and didn’t have to go through a painfully long “training session” with other people. After a few minutes cruising around to get our bearings we were off. It was a bit bumpy in parts because of all the beautiful cobblestone streets but that just made it more fun. I did my usual trick when on two wheels and almost stacked the segway. Yeah yeah, three cheers for me. Some of you who know me know that I’m a little bit unco on two wheels and I tend to have a stack at some point. Well, we were on a particularly rough and narrow cobblestone path with slow moving traffic on one side and a wall on the other. The path was wide enough for one segway and one person to pass fairly closely together. There was a driveway that had a fairly decent slope to it and the trick is you’re meant to bend one knee and lean slightly in the opposite direction to the slope. Hmmm, apparently that was all too much for my somewhat limited coordination. It really wasn’t that bad, but I felt myself losing it and quickly had to turn the segway towards the wall and put my foot on the ground to stop myself careening crazily into the side of a car. I just stood there as still as I could, holding onto the segway until the tour guide steadied it for me so I could hop back on. Because the segway relies on your body movement for direction, having one foot still on it while being slightly forward can be a bit of an awkward predicament! But, crisis was averted. I’m absolutely fine, Mum!

The tour took us to parts of the city we would never have made it to. We also became somewhat of a tourist attraction because people are often amazed by the segways. I’m happily exhausted at the moment and would love a bit of a kip but I’m too excited! This city is so cool and there’s so much to do and see here.

 

 

 

 

 

Here’s a picture of the segways at our halfway coffee stop. Graeme’s was the black one in the foreground and mine was the one on the far left.

 

This picture was taken at the lookout at Prague Castle…

And this one was taken after our coffee break. I can’t believe we’re here seeing all of this! Look at that beautiful city!

PS: Thanks MumD for keeping your fingers crossed for fine weather! It was raining when we woke up this morning but by the time we started the tour it had fined up and the sun had made an appearance. It was still fairly cold today though, but I think that just made it more pleasant to tour around.

Graeme’s reading through the rules of the Euro Tunnel train we’ll have to take to get over to the UK. Here’s some funny ones for you. Rules rules rules!…

Section 8.4A – No person shall sing, dance, shout, whistle or play a musical instrument. (Damn!)

Section 8.4B – Use any apparatus for transmission, reception, recording, reproduction, or amplification of sound, speech or images. (Um, ooookaaaay, I promise not to. Wait, oops, I had my fingers crossed!)

Graeme:
Wearing a helmet on these things makes you look like a goon, but oh well. Saw a Ferrari FF… watch the video. Needless to say my attention was not at the percentage of egg mixed in the mortar, but rather at the red beauty and the photo potential.
Cassie’s a bit hard on herself surrounding her success on two wheels. She didn’t have any trouble, she just got stuck at a section with a side slope… and a gutter.
Prague is crazy touristy. It’d be 20 tourists to one local. I get that we are also tourists, but in future, I expect the streets to be cleared of other tourists before our arrival.

When referring to the photos below, this is the story surrounding the John Lennon wall. The John Lennon wall is on the side of the Malta embassy. After John Lennon’s death, a mural was painted on this wall. The next day it was painted over by the police/council. It was repainted. This went on for a few days, back and forth. As this was communist times, naturally this kind of thing was outlawed, except the locals negotiated with the embassy, and the wall stayed as it was property of Malta, not Prague/CZ. The larger cobblestones a the base represent Malta soil, so painting in the 1m section is permitted, painting beyond this was illegal.

Photos: https://picasaweb.google.com/twomagadan/AroundPrague?authkey=Gv1sRgCP2Yq7K66YOrlgE#