Flirting with success

Chapter 24

We had a lie in the next morning before eventually finding the motivation to get up for breakfast. It would have been easy to stay in bed wrapped around each other all day but that wasn't in the spirit of the trip. Our plan for the day was to hire bikes and go and see some of the popular landmarks in Amsterdam.

I was the only one who had not been to the Netherlands before so I found myself a little more excited than the rest. Although I think my excitement gave Jill a bit of joy too. We were all professional athletes so the cycling around the city wasn't at a relaxed pace. I suppose this meant that we could see more in the day.

The first thing we did was visit the Anne Frank museum. I got to see the famous secret annex. It was such an emotional journey knowing the fate of many Jews like Anne Frank. It made me feel silly that they had to physically hide to avoid wrongful persecution and just got on with it whereas I had a glimpse of not being accepted and it let it dictate me. I wanted to take strength from this experience and I think I have.

After we were done there everyone was in a dampened mood so we decided to do something a bit more fun. We decided to chain the bikes up and rent a boat to go along the canals. It was quite cold but so pretty it didn't matter. Viv is naturally good at everything so she took charge of steering the boat. Me and Jill sat at the front on one of the cushioned benches wrapped up in a blanket that we found on the boat.

"So what do you think?" she questioned

"Well it's much nicer than Bristol" I laughed "in all seriousness though thank you so much"

"That's okay" she responded "I was thinking maybe tomorrow we could head across the country to see my parents" Tomorrow was Christmas Eve and I think despite our earlier agreement Jill was keen to spend at least some of the holiday with her family which I understood.

"Yeah of course, how do we get there"

"I'll have to find a car to hire so we can drive. Oldenzaal is on the other side of the country Soph, it's basically in Germany if you want to think of it like that"

"Oh right, I'm sorry I'm so ignorant, i'm not really up on my Dutch geography"

"That's okay, I didn't have a clue either when I moved to the UK"

I wasn't that excited at the thought of a long drive again but I suppose in Jill's company it couldn't be so bad. Plus with them driving on the opposite side of the road I had an excuse to be the passenger so I could just sit back and relax.

We did a few more touristy things in Amsterdam before heading back to the hotel for dinner. All six of us sat around one big table. One older couple approached us harmlessly "oh fun girls trip" the woman said "my husband wouldn't have let me when I was as young and gorgeous as you, you're very lucky yours are so permitting" Beth was a very outgoing person so chose to joke her way out of the situation.

"None of us have husbands thankfully" she said hoping the woman would get the idea

"Girls as gorgeous as you, I suppose you're just waiting for the right one"

Dan was ballsy "I've found the right one thank you" she said before leaning into Beth to instigate a quick kiss.

Lisa just burst out in laughter as the poor woman awkwardly walked away. I knew from this moment onwards that I was going to really enjoy getting to know this group of people even better in the coming months. Once we had finished dinner Jill and I excused ourselves and went off for an early nights sleep. We had to be up early to drive across the country. Now that the time is getting closer I'm getting really excited to meet her family. With the distance of the journey we might even end up staying and spending Christmas Day with them which would make Jill so happy.