Trekking to Utrecht…

The star of the show

“I trek, you trek, we all trek to Utrecht”….So went the cry as a merry band of eight of us left the UK from various departure points to all convene on the beautiful Dutch city of Utrecht. A feast was in store both literally and metaphorically, for it was to be a weekend of fine classical music, fine food and fine conversation. The purpose of this venture was primarily to see my super-talented niece Chloe conduct in some of the finest concert venues in the world to audiences approaching 2,000. Chloe is 27, and achieving such heady heights already early in her career completely blew me away. The orchestra and audience were lifted with every twirl of her baton and I was left both speechless and with a tear in my eye.

But there were other missions to accomplish too – the sub-plot was to introduce ‘our family’ to ‘his family’. The ‘he’ of this story being her wonderful boyfriend Alex. And so the 8 of us became 13, as we toured Utrecht on foot and barge, eating and chatting away around what is a truly stunning and vibrant city. For the fourth time this year I felt Britain is just lagging behind and Europe rapidly racing ahead. That aside we all seemed to get on famously and the generosity of our hosts – my brother and his wife and Chloe and Alex – left us desiring nothing and full of joy and laughter which meant for everyone having a truly fantastic weekend. Thank you all so very much and it was a pleasure meeting many new faces (and also thanks to Nana and Baba for holding the fort in Kirkintilloch!).

And before we knew it we landed back with a bump – straight into Storm Babet – but even that didn’t dampen my autumnal good vibes that our trek to Utrecht (and Amsterdam) had left us with.

Videoclip: Trekking to Utrecht

Or you can watch the video here