We find a bench and sit down. On the river, paddleboats done up to look like swans and vintage cars drift by. The sun is low, and the light on the water is golden and glorious. I’m tempted to point out that for less money and effort, we could be sitting on a bench along the Speed River with much the same effect.

But I know better.

I’VE ALWAYS WONDERED if doctors are like politicians, if they actually believe the lies they tell. Having a tube shoved up my nose hurt like hell. It hurt going in, and it hurt coming out.

“Did you know you have a slightly deviated septum?”

“What about my saliva glands?”

“They’re definitely swollen,” the doctor told me. “How would you feel about a biopsy?”

“You want to cut me open?”

“It’s the only definitive way to rule out lymphoma.”

I said no. Mimi said yes. In the end, medical science removed one of my saliva glands. Day surgery. Home that evening with a drain bag hanging off the side of my neck.

The following week I was back in the doctor’s office.

“It’s not cancer.”

“So, what is it?”

“A swollen gland.”

“Why is it swollen?”

“There could be many reasons.”

“The other gland is also swollen.”

“We could take it out as well,” the doctor suggested. “If you like.”

“Why would we do that?”

“As a precaution.”

“Against what?”

I didn’t have the second gland taken out. One round of day surgery and a scar on my neck were enough fun. As well, with the one saliva gland gone, my mouth was as dry as the Okanagan. And for all the probing and the cutting, we still didn’t know what had caused the swelling in the first place.

“It’s not lymphoma,” Mimi told me. “How about we leave good news alone?”

SO WE’RE IN PRAGUE and it’s evening and now we’re lost. Not lost lost. Just somewhat confused. We’ve come away from the river into a web of streets that don’t match the streets on Mimi’s map.

“It’s the right map,” she assures me. “It’s just that some of the streets have different names.”

I wonder if the map that Mimi has was printed before Czechoslovakia was broken up into the Czech Republic and Slovakia. I’m not sure that this would answer the street-name question, but it might provide a historical excuse for any discrepancies.

“Adventure,” says Mimi, and she heads down the street towards a row of restaurants, all aglow in evening dress. “Another reason we travel.”