The sun peeked out from behind the tall blinds, streaks of light shooting across our bedroom floor. Today was the day, and it was a good one, the day when we’d finally do something that my wife had been wanting to do ever since we left on this trip: ride bikes together. I had roused us early to make sure we had enough time eat, get ready and walk to our meeting point for the biking tour group. Whilst we left a tad later than we had wanted to we still made it to our destination with time to spare, a small group of people indicative of us being in the right place.
Then things took a turn for the worse.
My wife has unfortunately been battling with some form of bacteria ever since she got back from Indonesia last year. We had talked to doctors before we left about it and they had found it to be some common form of bacteria that’s typically harmless but for some it causes all sorts of issues. To rid my wife of it they prescribed some general antibiotics with the caution that it’d make things worse before they got better. She had been putting off taking them because of that but decided it was best to start just before we left Canada. She’s at the tail end of the course now but it seems that’s when things really start to go south.
So we made it to the bike shop to pick up our rides and Rebecca was almost doubled over with nausea. She said she wouldn’t make it but urged me to go on without her. Not wanting to leave my wife alone in such a state I asked if we could delay our tour by a couple days (which they have done for us, kudos We Bike Amsterdam) and sought about trying to get us a taxi or Uber back to our hotel. I got her back and in bed, the poor little thing not wanting to move an inch lest the nausea take hold.
With her safe and sound I figured it was as good a time as any to get my hair cut as it had become a wild mess over the last couple weeks. The barber I found turned out to be closed so I spent the next half hour trying to track one down. I eventually did and they were able to take me in right away. I should’ve been a little more forthcoming with what I wanted however as I ended up with a very…let’s call it “European Gangster”… look. It’s nothing a trim with a pair of clippers won’t fix, however.
I returned to the hotel to check on my wife who had barely moved an inch since I had left her. She was feeling a lot better however and we thought we’d try for one small thing to see how she fared. We made our way to the Anne Frank house only to be greeted with a line rivaling that of the Paris Catacombs and figured our time would best be spent elsewhere. After I got her settled back in bed I went out and sourced us some dinner from the local supermarket. This was where I came across Chimay Blue for the low low price of €2, an opportunity I found hard to pass up. Thankfully my wife was able to keep a good amount of food down and we whiled away the night watching Police Academy movies on one of the local TV stations.
Right now I’m hesitant to make any plans due to my wife’s condition. Tomorrow is the last day of antibiotics and so hopefully we’ve got no where else to go but up from here. So I may end up going solo for most of tomorrow, something I hadn’t really planned for. Not that I’m wanting for lack of choice here though as there’s plenty I haven’t seen yet and my camera has barely felt any love. Hopefully after tomorrow though Rebecca will be ready to tackle our 3 hour bike tour as it would be a real shame to miss out on it otherwise.
