Mother and Daughter Trip

 Chloe and I had our first mother daughter trip. She had 2 weeks school holidays and most of her good friends were away. If we don't plan anything, she would just be happy to stay in her room with her phone. So I asked her where did she want to go. She said Utrecht, the town Miffy was born. Miffy is her new favourite character. Move over Minion. 

So we took a trip to Amsterdam. Chloe's last visit was in 2016 but she said she had no recollection of that trip. The train was five and a half hour non-stop. Not bad a journey. Upon arrival, we were hungry and went to a pancake shop. We must have stumbled upon a tourist trap. The pancake was good but the price was tourist price. 

Apple crumble and banana chocolate pancakes.

We wondered along the canals until dinner time. We clocked 15,000 steps on the first day. Chloe's definition of holiday was no need for agenda. She said just walk. So I just followed her and walked. Had dinner at a highly rated local restaurant.  The food was good but the pancake at 4pm spoilt our appetite. We both were not very hungry. 

The ribs were tendered but too bad I was not hungry to eat more.

The next day, we ventured to Utrecht. It was half an hour train ride from Amsterdam. Famous university town and of course the birth town of Miffy. We managed to squeeze a canal boat ride in the evening. There were only 2 of us in the whole boat - like a private tour. The captain slowed down the boat for us to take pictures and gave his personal commentary. It was wonderful. And we clocked 16,000 steps.

This is Miffy.

The famous houses by the canal.

There are 7 bridges aligned in a row.

The famous bridge in a lot of the impressionist paintings.

No visit to Amsterdam is complete without a visit to the museum. We only had time to visit 1 museum and we chose Rijksmuseum. On the last day, we we were walking to Chinatown for our dim sum fix, we walked through the red light district by chance. I saw all main entrances have red light on and was telling myself what a uniform facade. It only clicked after I saw some models standing behind the window. Interesting sight for us both. 

As we were done with our to-dos, the storm came. It was time to head home.

A few things I have learned or observed during this trip. 

1. There were hardly any homeless people sleeping on the streets. I only saw 2 in the central train station. Very impressive record for a big city. 

2. I was always wondering why the houses were so open. Hardly any curtain or blinds and you can literally see what's happening inside the house. A friend who live there for 30+ years said is it the religion - Calvinist Protestant - believe in transparency, nothing to hide. Hence, the open house.

3. The buildings are built with the trademark look- red bricks. I was curious and googled. Wiki/AI said red clay is abundant in Netherlands. That's why it is common to use it as the building material.

4. Like any big cities, there are a lot of foreigners working in delivery, retail, hospitality. My thoughts are how are they received by the locals? Is the language proficiency good enough to communicate or are they expected to be fluent in order to integrate? What is the tolerance level like?

All in all, it was a sweet short trip. Chloe had the best ramen in Europe as she said. I walked quite a bit and appreciate the city better.