01
Stop one
Charles Bridge
Wilson RF Tennis Bag (1 Racquet): (softly) It was begun in 1357 under Charles IV, to replace the Judith Bridge that a flood had swept away — and tradition holds that the emperor's astrologers chose the exact moment the foundation stone was laid, for its numerological sequence. A bridge started on a magic minute. The one built by ordinary means is at the bottom of the river; this one is still here. I am not saying anything. I am only pointing. Sandstone, sixteen arches, finished in the early fifteenth century, and until 1841 the only crossing of the Vltava in Prague; the coronation route of the Bohemian kings ran across it. Thirty baroque statues went up along the parapets from 1683, most now copies with the originals in the Lapidarium — so the figures watching you cross are stand-ins. The oldest and most venerated is St. John of Nepomuk, thrown from this bridge on the orders of King Wenceslaus IV in 1393. (pause) People still touch him for luck. The Old Town bridge tower is among the finest Gothic gate towers in Europe.
02
Stop two
Prague Castle and St. Vitus Cathedral
Wilson RF Tennis Bag (1 Racquet): (lowering the voice further) Seat of Bohemian rulers since the ninth century, and often described as the largest coherent castle complex in the world — some seventy thousand square metres of palaces, churches and courtyards, which is a very great deal of corridor to be alone in, and somebody is, every night. At its centre stands St. Vitus Cathedral, begun in 1344 under Charles IV to designs by Matthias of Arras and continued by Peter Parler, its Wenceslas Chapel lined with semi-precious stones and holding the door to the crown jewels; the nave was only completed in 1929. Not one person who laid a stone at the start ever stood under the finished roof. And in the Old Royal Palace is the Vladislav Hall, and the window from which imperial governors were thrown in the Defenestration of 1618 — the event that triggered the Thirty Years' War. (pause) The men survived the fall. The continent did not. Still the official residence of the Czech president.
03
Stop three
Prague Astronomical Clock
Wilson RF Tennis Bag (1 Racquet): (a whisper) Here is the one everyone waits for, and they wait for the wrong reason. Installed in 1410, made by the clockmaker Mikuláš of Kadaň with the mathematician Jan Šindel, which makes it the oldest astronomical clock still operating anywhere. The upper dial shows the sun and moon moving through the zodiac and the time in several systems, Old Bohemian among them; the calendar dial below was painted by Josef Mánes in 1865. On the hour, the figures of Vanity, Greed, Death and Lust move, the twelve apostles pass the windows above, and it ends with a cockerel's crow. Four sins and a bird, on the hour, since before most countries on this continent existed. Legend claims the maker was blinded to stop him ever repeating the work. (pause) But the true part is worse: German forces burned the clock along with the town hall in May 1945, and it had to be painstakingly rebuilt. The legend is a story. That one happened.
04
Stop four
Old-New Synagogue
Wilson RF Tennis Bag (1 Racquet): (very quietly, and plainly) The oldest active synagogue in Europe, completed around 1270 in early Gothic style, with a rare double-nave hall carried on two octagonal pillars. Its name is variously explained by the Hebrew al-tenai, meaning on condition, or simply by its having been the new synagogue that later became the old one. It survived the clearances of the Prague ghetto at the end of the nineteenth century, when almost all the surrounding streets were demolished, and it survived the Nazi occupation, during which Jewish artefacts from across Bohemia were gathered in Prague. I will not put atmosphere on that. It is a building that outlived the destruction of its own neighbourhood and then the destruction of its community, and it remains in use for worship. It is also inseparable from the legend of Rabbi Judah Loew and the Golem, whose remains are said to lie in the attic above us. Of everything I have told you today, the survival is the part that is true.
I was thrown out of a window in Prague and I lived, so I have firm views on padding. The imperial governors went out of the Old Royal Palace window in 1618, started the Thirty Years' War, and survived the drop. Catholics said angels. Everybody else said the manure heap below. Either way, what you land on matters, and that is the whole philosophy of a racquet cover.
I am the small one. 74.9 by 33.8 by 3.8 cm, 51% polyester and 49% nylon, one racquet, one small accessory pocket on the back, one shoulder strap, and a Swiss peak on the front out of respect for whose initials are on it. That is all. No wheels, no shoe tunnel, no compartment for a second life you do not have. If you own one racquet and walk to the court, everything else is luggage.
Prague rewards travelling light. Charles Bridge was begun in 1357, carries sixteen arches, and was the only crossing in Prague until 1841, and it did the entire job on its own. The astronomical clock has been running since 1410 and still only tells you the time, the date and the position of the sun, which is enough.
I go everywhere from a tram ride across town to a weekend away with hand luggage only, and by the way, I am also perfect for the player whose partner has begun commenting on the size of the current bag.
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