Prague, Revisited (2026)

Alexi and Mateo are both teenagers now, and are a lot bigger than when we were together as a family in Prague in 2016.	Mateo has been going to the Music Festival in Prague since 2022, with David accompanying him, and this year Alexi and Sharon joined them for the last day of the festival.
David and Mateo were at the Prague Music Festival for two weeks, and Alexi and Sharon flew in for the last two days and just in time to hear Mateo perform at this Monastery.	Mateo got to spend two weeks being mentored by and receiving piano lessons from his wonderful piano teacher Ms. Irina.
Lovely murals adorn the ceilings of the monastery, with angels and female saints in the heavens...	...as well as those spreading the word of Jesus Christ on earth.
Mateo performed "Prelude and Fugue #9 in E Major" by Dmitri Shostakovich.	Yosef performed "Polanaise" by Wieniawski.
Behind the monastery is this beautiful reservoir with a stunning reflection of the surrounding flora.	Sharon loves being outdoors in summertime, especially next to beautiful bodies of water.
After Mateo's concert at the Monastery we headed to Tandoor Original Indian Restaurant and were thrilled to eat outdoors.	Mateo is a HUGE fan of mango lassis and it is his go-to drink order always when it is on the menu.
Our family all love Indian bread, including the boyz all time favorite garlic naan...	...as well as Sharon's favorite pappadum and onion fritters as an app.
Alexi and David are huge fans of Indian food...	...and Mateo and Sharon are also.
Sharon had dal, an Indian lentil curry.	David enjoyed chana bhaji in this beautiful bowl.
At the last day of the Prague Music Festival Mateo performed "Saraband" by George Frederick Handel in a trio sonato with three of his SMS peers...	...and then Mateo and David performed together for the very first time in public.  They surprised Sharon and Alexi with a rendition of "When Irish Eyes Are Smiling," with Mateo playing piano and David singing and playing Irish tin whistle.
A huge round of applause for the wonderful music teachers who are at the Prague Musical Festival every summer...	...as well as the piano, violin, and viola students of all ages from all over the world who took part in the 2026 festival.
After the final concert there was a reception for musicians and their families, and it was here that we discovered open-faced sandwiches.	These Prague open-faced vegetarian sandwiches were delicious!
David began a tradition many years ago of taking a photograph of Mateo and his friend Yosef jumping up in the air in celebration of the end of the festival.  This year all the SMS students got in on the action(!)	Yosef and Mateo recreate the original jumping picture that began back in               .
At the conclusion of the festival, an afternoon of touring Prague was in order.  We were last here together as a family 10 years ago, and the kids have grown a lot since then (& Sharon has gotten shorter!).	First stop: chimney cakes.  Our family fell in love with these delectable desserts ten years ago, and Mateo has had several every summer he has been at the Prague Music Festival.  Alexi was excited to have one again.
Mateo and David had a white chocolate chimney cake filled with bananas and ice cream.	Alexi and Sharon had a pistachio chimney cake filled with strawberries, ice cream, and a strawberry on top.
We next headed to the Charles Bridge, to walk its length while admiring the sculptures, people-watching, and checking out the Vltava River.	From the Charles Bridge we were able to see Prague Castle in the distance.  Sharon toured in when we visited Prague ten years ago, and Mateo and David got to go on a tour there several years ago (it is on so many Top Ten Lists of where to go in Europe!).
Alexi and Mateo pose together (Alexi in David's old shirt, and are those matching shorts?!?!?).	David and Sharon pose together with David's Desert Storm Khakis and Sharon's white sundress.
Sharon is oh so happy and feels so blessed to be on summer vacation in Europe.	We photographed this statue of a saint on our last visit to Prague, and it caught our attention once again.
Christianity is so intertwined with so much European history.	And we learned in a film that when the Charles Bridge was originally built there were no sculptures, though when they installed one it brought such crowds they decided to put many statues on the bridge.
Sharon always loves to do new things, so we decided to climb to the top of the tower at the end of the Charles Bridge.	Sharon and Mateo are super adventurous and also love ascending to great heights!
Inside the tower on the mezzanine level we were greeted with this beautiful blue stained glass window...	...and an identical orange window showing a bird (interesting that birds retain the egg shape as adults).
A kind security guard photographed our family on the mezzanine.	We got this gorgeous aerial view of Prague at the top of the tower.
Sharon loved this birds-eye view of Charles Bridge.	Mateo checks out the Vltava River.
One of the things our family most remembers about Prague is this gorgeous, colorful clock in the Old Town Square.	Every hour it plays music and different saints appear in the two windows at the very top.  We were disappointed the skeleton shaking his head yes is no longer there (a painful yet necessary reminder that time is finite).
We saw these Kofka statues on our first trip to Prague.  This one is a statue of Franz Kafka by artist Jaroslav Róna, and is installed on Vězeňská street in the Jewish Quarter of Prague.	The incredible, kinetic statue is the Head of Franz Kafka, also known as the Statue of Kafka, and was created by David Černý.
Sharon was so moved both times she saw this "Memorial to the Victims of Communism." work of Czech sculptor Olbram Zoubek and architects Jan Kerel and Zdeněk Holzel.	It commemorates both those imprisoned and killed, though also those who had to suffer in their daily life under communist rule (there should also be women portrayed since they also were hurt by communism).
After a day of touring we met our SMS tours for a group dinner at Natureza Garden.  They have a lovely outdoor garden as their dining area.	Fruity lemonades are an Eastern European thing, and Sharon totally fell in love with them this trip and had one at every restaurant (strawberry pictured here).
Here are the SMS students and their families, including one student who is heading to Rice University to continue her piano studies.	As an appetizer we had multigrain bread and hummus.
David had the vegan version of Svíčková, a famous sauce from Czech cuisine, made from root vegetables and heavy cream that's thickened with roux.	Sharon had the Kung Pao Vegan Chicken, which was super delicious.
These fruit bowls at the market caught Sharon's eye ten years ago (check on this blog!) and they did again, due to the colorful mixture of berries as well as her new favorites - currants.	While our boyz headed back to our air b&b, David and Sharon went back to Charles Bridge to witness a picturesque sunset.
On our last day in Prague, Sharon found a chimney making class that worked perfectly in our schedules before our train to our next European city.	We arrived early and got to see the set-up to prepare all of us novice chimney cake bakers to prepare this quintessential Prague dessert.
This is such a fun mural of chimney cakes on the Vltava River with Prague Castle in the background.	Each participant in our class was given a ball of dough.  At first I thought the recipe was proprietary, though it turns out in the end they provided a recipe card so families can make chimney cakes at home.
Sharon and David are ready to bake, with their pre-made dough (recipe follows) and rolling pins.	Alexi and Mateo begin to roll out the dough into a long and thin rope that stretches all the way across the mat.
Next step was to make our dough into the shape of an N: perfect for us New Yorkers.	Then we got our dough around our roller; David is armed and ready to go.
We next had to roll out the dough on the roller in order to spread it out so it became the size of a typical chimney cake.  Sharon was having a blast.	Alexi and Mateo carefully brush oil onto their dough.
Then we all went to the front of the room to roll our chimney cakes in granulated sugar.  Mateo shows us how it's done.	Our baking instructor gave David some pointers on how to roll his chimney cake.
Our chimney cakes then went into their first rotisserie oven, in which they spin around and around.	The purpose of this first heating step, to             , is to activate the yeast in the dough.
Once this preliminary heating was complete, we put our chimney cakes into the second oven, which again rotates them around for even cooking and heats them in an oven with a higher temperature.  Alexi shows us how it is done.	Chimney cakes are done cooking when they become brown and beautiful.
We patiently waited for our chimney cakes to cook while deciding what sugar to roll on the outside.	Afterwards we go to roll our chimney cakes in this selection of toppings: coconut sugar, vanilla sugar, cinnamon or walnuts.
Sharon takes her freshly baked chimney cake from the oven and dips it in the coconut sugar, to try something new and different.	Sharon's choice of coconut sugar was unique, with most people in the baking class opting for vanilla sugar or the most popular, cinnamon sugar.
Our family posed with our completed chimney cakes we baked ourselves at the conclusion of the workshop, each dipped in the various types of sugars.	We each received our official chimney cake baking certificates, which we will proudly display at home!
Sharon considers herself a baker and now she has the certificate to prove it!	On the back of our certificates is the recipe if we ever want to make chimney cakes at home in our oven!
We randomly found this chimney cake baking workshop from a Google search, and highly recommend.	Between our trip back in 2016 and this trip in 2026 we have visited many of the famous sites on this map (though have not yet tried the beer).
Mateo loves playing piano and this was his fifth year participating in the Prague Music Festival.	David loves going with Mateo to Prague each summer since he gets to practice oboe and perform at concerts.
This trip to Central Europe is a high school graduation gift to Alexi before he heads off to college in August.	Sharon loves traveling and baking and the chimney cake workshop combined both of these passions.  She also loves being a mom and traveling with her family.
We loved once again being together in Prague as a family.	Thank you to all the angels who guided us to Prague and made this summer trip possible for us this year.
Chimney cakes will forever be our association with our summer travels to Prague.	This could be our last time traveling as a family of four (as Alexi heads off to college), so we are enjoying every moment of it.