Europe by van Day 21

The news of #2 daughter is that last night, when the senior registrar had viewed the scan, it was decided she needed a tonsillectomy so that the abscesses further down her neck could be dealt with to stop them restricting her breathing and to ensure no sepsis. Phil had had to go home to sort out the boys for bed so #3 daughter went over to be with her when she came out of recovery at 11pm. All seems to have gone well and she’s managing the pain with paracetamol. She’s a hardy one despite her tiny frame. She hopes to get home tomorrow.

Things seem to be moving in the right direction for us too. The boat man came to the site to look at the damage. There was much sucking of teeth but he said he and his men could put his other work on hold and fix it up. At a price. A big price.

We drove it a few minutes out of the village to his worksite where he had a young woman ready to translate. We’ve agreed to part with a lot of euros and in exchange he thinks the fix will be a permanent one. Several men are working on it, making a mould for the fibreglass etc. They work from 7-3. The young woman phoned a women across the fence from the boat builder’s yard. She has some holiday cottages (brick huts) and we are staying there for 2 nights for €90 as there will be too much mess of dust etc in the van. Here we have a kitchen, sleeping area and bathroom. It was showery when we left the van but in the afternoon the sun appeared. We carried essential stuff from the van round to the hut and are settling in for a couple of days at least.

I think we’ve seen all there is to see in this area within walking distance. We walked to the shop to get a few bits of food. There’s no bottle opener in the hut so we got a screw top bottle of Macedonian red. I suspect it will be too much of an acquired taste even for me.

This is our holiday hut and you can see the van over the fence.