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On hearing cicadas, most Czechs recall Croatia. Last summer, around 1 000 000 Czechs travelled there to enjoy summer vacation. In other words, one tenth of all citizens of the Czech Republic including newborns and the elderly crossed the Croatian border during the high tourist season. I asked Goran, who has worked in tourism here on Rab Island in Croatia for 15 years, which nationality of tourists he considers the most numerous, in Goran's words the most "populated".

Zdenek Macal was born 71 years ago in the Czech Republic's second city of Brno. He achieved success rapidly, first conducting the Czech Philharmonic in 1966 at the age of 30. With the Soviet invasion two years later he fled the country, but quickly found his feet abroad, serving as chief conductor of the Cologne Radio Orchestra and then beginning a hugely successful career in the United States. His time as musical director of the Milwaukee Symphony and the New Jersey Symphony, saw both orchestras blossom, with the maestro showing a good head for

Radio Prague's special Easter programme focuses on the music of Czech composer and conductor Jaroslav Krcek, who has arranged and recorded a number of traditional folk songs pertaining to this time of year as well as a number of his own compositions, which draw heavily on Czech Easter traditions for their inspiration.

Karel Janovicky has had a distinguished career as a composer, pianist, writer and broadcaster, and at 77 is still full of energy. When I interviewed him in his study in the family's house in North London, there were few signs that he might be contemplating retirement. His latest composition, a sonata for clarinet and piano, lay open on the upright piano in the corner, as he added a few finishing touches, and the room was full of books, scores and articles.

Norbert Auerbach moved to Prague from Vienna at the age of two and grew up here in the 1920s and 30s, the son of a very successful motion picture producer. Indeed, as a boy he lived at Barrandov, home of the Czech Republic's famous film studios. Mr Auerbach later moved to the USA, where he had an extremely successful career in Hollywood, including a spell as president of United Artists. In this special programme, Norbert Auerbach, now 84, looks back on a long and colourful life and career.

For many people, for many years, the Olga Szantova was THE voice of Radio Prague. Almost three and a half years after she passed away, a new book has been published in her honour. It is in Slovak, Czech and English and has the Slovak title Nezila som nadarmo, I Didn't Live in Vain. Radio Prague's former editor-in-chief David Vaughan was a good friend of Olga Szantova's; at its launch, he explained the thinking behind the new publication.

Much of the most interesting historic art in Prague is on view every day of the year, all hours of the day. But you'll have to be prepared to crane your neck a bit to see the house emblems that adorn many of Prague's ancient buildings.

Today the English College in Prague is one of several private secondary schools where pupils are taught in the English language. In this day and age, this is nothing unusual, but what is less well-known is that schools like the English College are building on a Prague tradition that goes way back to 1927. That was when Prague's pioneering state-run English Grammar School was set up - at the time known universally by the acronym PEGS. It was on the instigation of the Education Ministry, with the strong support of the then minister and later Prime

When it comes to moving between floors in Prague's taller buildings, there are more options than just elevators, escalators, and the stairs. The paternoster, an unusual early variant on the elevator, is still in wide use throughout the Czech Republic.

The dramatic events of the Velvet Revolution began on the 17th November 1989. A student demonstration was put down brutally by the police, resulting in a huge public outcry. Protests and further demonstrations gained such rapid momentum that within days the regime was doomed, and by the end of the year Vaclav Havel was president. Any Czech over the age of thirty-five will have vivid memories of the time, but in the meantime a generation has grown up for whom these events are no more than history. So how, seventeen years after the fall of communism,