While visiting Mladá Boleslav, a town about 70 kilometers from Prague, I saw many automobiles from various eras in the Škoda Museum, named after a popular Czech car manufacturer that is renowned world-wide. When I walked into the former production halls of the automobile maker, I didn’t know what to expect. I had never been to a museum featuring cars – stagecoaches yes, but cars no. I didn’t have a car and hated driving.

Still, the museum cast a spell on me as I peered at vehicles from the turn of the 19^th and 20^th century to the present day. The company was established as far back as 1895 by Václav Klement and Václav Laurin, when they focused on bicycles, a few of which were on display. I especially liked the two-seater for postal workers. The unicycle was another delight. I recalled how one Bagatti Valsecchi brother had mastered the unicycle in the early 20^th century and how I came across a picture of him posing on one at the Bagatti Valsecchi House Museum in Milan, where Renaissance and Neo-Renaissance art took precedence.

The automobiles that most enamored me were those from the end of the 19^th and beginning of the 20^th century, although I enjoyed noting how the manufacturing of cars had developed over time. There are cars and bicycles on the ground floor, and after climbing many steps to a viewing platform, more cars are situated on vast shelves.

Here are some photos from bicycles and cars on display in the museum.

Tracy A. Burns is a writer, proofreader and editor in Prague.