-----------------
-----------------
-----------------
|
|
| We took a tour of Prague - by Segway.
|
|
| The Segway is a "personal transporter".
It balances on two wheels and carries you around as you stand on the platform leaning forwards/backwards to move, and twisting a handgrip to turn.
It sounds rather awkward, but it's actually very easy - the machine takes care of the balancing part for you. You just lean forward when you want to get going and lean back a bit to slow down.
And it's actually very hard to fall off (neither of us did).
The speeds on our models were limited to roughly jogging pace, although the machines can go at up to 19kph.
Under the bonnet, it's all very ingenious. Two small but powerful independent motors control the wheels. Gyroscopes and pressure sensors help to balance it.
Consider what it has to done when the speed limit it reached - it can't simply slow the wheels down, or the rider would fall forward. Instead it actually has to accellerate slightly to tip the rider backwards slightly, so that the speed can be reduced without the rider losing balance (or probably even noticing).
|
The old clock tower in the central square.
The Segways do attract a lot of attention driving around town.
And Prague city-centre can get rather crowded - we were there in December though, so the pedestrians didn't get in our way too much.
|
|
| This is the narrowest street in Prague.
So narrow, you wouldn't want to drive a Segway down it.
It's even got traffic lights, so that pedestrians don't get stuck in the middle.
|
This is good king Wenceslas on his horse.
But the statue in this shopping arcade differs from the one in Wenceslas square - it represents how people's lives here were turned upside down after the fall of communism following the Velvet Revolution in 1989.
|
|
| The communist museum shows some of the old propaganda posters.
This one shows how "a young builder of socialism looks different from a decadent swine".
|
The people at the library have come up with some innovative ways of storing their books.
|
|
| That's Prague Castle on top of the hill.
|
Next
page...
|
