BB2B Day 11: Missing – One Laptop

 
For reasons that will become apparent my laptop is tonight at large somewhere in Holland or Belgium. So I am having to write this blog on my iPhone, which is a fiddly old business, so please forgive brevity.

Today we were rejoined by our wonderful filmmaker Nora. She had had to return to New York for a few days to work on another film project (and yes, we ARE bugging her about her carbon footprint!) but today flew into Brussels and immediately set out to rejoin the Orange Jackets.

Meanwhile we had our work cut out. Many miles to cover today, and a few incipient injury worries. Having been the strongest walker throughout the first week of our trek, yesterday Laura developed a niggle in a thigh muscle. She had done all the right things – rest, massage, elevate, anti-inflammatories -but by midday today was clearly in quite a bit of pain. Mary has also been suffering since Day 1, when an old volleyball injury chose an inconvenient time to flare up again.

So it was with some relief that we learned that Nora and car were imminent. Not only could we get Laura and Mary off their feet, but Nora would have some drama for her documentary.

However, we ended up with a bit more drama than we’d counted on, and it was of our filmmaker’s own creation.

Nora arrives. Excited reunion. Quick bit of filming to record how Laura is feeling. Hit road again. 30 seconds later something else hits the road – Nora’s borrowed $7,000 camera. Something important-looking breaks open. I’m no technical expert but I know that when you can see circuit boards exposed it’s probably not a good sign. And when the jetlagged filmmaker spends several minutes desperately trying to cram the broken parts back together despite the obvious hopelessness of the task you know she’s probably going to be rather distraught about this latest development.

So tonight Nora is trying to find a replacement and/or a repair. Unfortunately my laptop had also been decanted into the car so Mary could use it when they got to the hotel ahead of us. So it is temporarily MIA.

On a happier note, we made good progress today in dry but overcast conditions. Most places in Holland are closed on a Monday, but around 11am we managed to find a hotel in Bergen op Zoom that was open for coffee. Thanks to blog follower Baldwin we were accosted on our way out of the town by two local reporters, who interviewed us as we pressed on out of the town. Thanks Baldwin!

P.S. 7pm We are now at the home of Baldwin and his wife Aey, who have very kindly invited us to join them for dinner. Sounds like we’re going to get to meet the neighbors and the parents as well. Happy days for our footsore team!