Month: December 2014

We woke up in our posh hotel to another hot and sunny day as we headed to the centre of Avignon for a wander around the palais de papes. One word of advice, if you’re planning to visit Avignon in a manual wheelchair, forget about it because loads of the streets and pavements around the old town are cobbled and the drop curbs are not really drop curbs! Anyway, we explored around the old Palais De Papes before heading along the river to the Pont D’avignon during which time my electric wheelchair suddenly stopped working so my PA had to go get the van and come and find us. There seems to be a “bad cable” although the water might have been something to do with it. Anyway we will find out tomorrow, fingers crossed.

After this drama, we set off to Montpellier planning to visit Pont de Gare along the way. However, when we arrived, we discovered that it had become a massive tourist attraction similar to Stonehenge and would cost to walk across it so we decided to against it. As we travelled further down towards the Mediterranean coast, the temperature reached 38 degrees but luckily settled for 35.5 degrees in Montpellier and, yet again we have air con!!

Tomorrow we plan to drive down to Sete right on the coast and drive along what looks like a piece of reclaimed land. Lookout how PA’s get on pushing me around in my manual wheelchair (if my electric doesn’t suddenly come back to life) on Twitter.

We began today by going for a wander around the financial district of Lyon in which we discovered we could go up the tallest building as it is a Radisson hotel and bar. The plan was to buy a cup of tea up there but looking at the prices, we decided against and so my PA pretended to look at the menu to distract the bar manager while we were taking photos. On leaving the tower we were approached by the same bar worker and his colleague, we instantly thought that they had come after us when in fact they were just trying to help us find an accessible way to the train station. Although we did not have time to go onto the tram, we checked them out and they seemed to be pretty accessible similar to the ones in Strasbourg.

We headed to my favorite place in the whole world, the train station, where we discovered some French trains such as the TGV and local SNCF trains had floors the same height as the platform which I thought was cool compared to English trains. On a closer look there seemed to be quite a big gap between the train floor and platform but it should be alright if you don’t have little wheels!

We then set off for our next destination of Avignon which was two hours away during which time the scenery and buildings changed quite rapidly into more of a Spanish design. We arrived at our hotel in Avignon which, again, was a cheap one, however, we discovered that the disabled rooms were in a different building from the main hotel and it was impossible for my wheelchair to fit in a normal room as well the bathroom being too small for my PA’s to assist me. As a result, we decided to move hotels and splash out on a double the price hotel just round the corner, at least this one has air conditioning as its been about 35 degrees today. We chilled out in my room for a few hours while it cooled down a little before heading down the road to, yet again, another station, this time Avignon TGV. I did what I do best and went train spotting whilst admiring the modern architecture before returning to the hotel for dinner.

Tomorrow we head an hour further down south to Montpelier which will be our base for driving around the Mediterranean coast so look out for hopefully for more photos on Twitter.

We had an unexpected start to the morning as we had planned to move the car to avoid paying a high rate for parking however when we got to the car, we discovered that my PAs had left the lights on which lead to a dead battery. Through my PA’s extensive knowledge of French, we managed to talk a French guy into helping us jump start the van. During this we caused quite a commotion as we found out that the instructions on the jump leads box were incorrect and we managed to set off the car alarm and then we were corrected by yet another French guy and scared his kid! Due to the battery being empty, we spent an hour driving round the outskirts of Lyon to recharge it, during which we discovered that the Tour de France was finishing at Lyon today. This then set the president for the day in which we decided to, after having lunch, find a shady spot and wait for the tour to come through.

It was quite interesting watching the tour in real life as it took all of forty seconds to pass whereas on TV it seems longer. We then returned to the car and tried to find our way back to the hotel avoiding all the road closures which involved most of the bridges to the financial district-where we are staying.

Tomorrow we plan to do what we were supposed to do today, which was to have a wander around the financial district before we head for our overnight stay in Avignon to visit the special place of the train station!!

Here I am again… Today we headed out and about in Bern city centre which began by a half an hour walk from the hotel. Along the way I noticed that most of the trams and buses are wheelchair accessible which is good to know! We started at my favorite place again, the train station which had recently been refurbished and it’s still partly in the process as well. This was followed by a wonder round the many old buildings such as the Houses of Parliament and the cathedral. It was a bit of a nightmare in the actual centre as they were relaying the tram tracks so we decided to cross the river which is the clearest I’ve ever seen! We then headed through the trees to the “bear pit” where we saw bears, obviously. Although Bern is the capital of Switzerland the city itself is quite small and took us about 2 hours to walk around most of the city.

So it’s a good choice for a day out. We then picked up some lunch and ate it in a park with pigeons although I hate them! So my PA decided to throw her flip flop at it and they never came back which was quite funny. We then wandered our way back to the hotel to chill out for the rest of the afternoon ready for the drive to Lyon tomorrow.

Well as you can see we got to the hotel quite late which is why I’m writing this this morning. Yesterday we headed from Zurich to the Jungfraujoch which took us up the Jungfrau to the top of Europe. To start with we were a bit skeptical about its accessibility so we thought it would be safer just to take my manual wheelchair. We were all surprised by how helpful the staff both on the railway and at the top were, right from the start at Lauterbrunner where the guard took it upon himself to assist getting my wheelchair on the train. We had to change trains at Kliene Schnidegg where we were greeted by a forklift truck with a mobile ramp attached to it. (I thought it was a great improvisation and also I got a ride on a forklift). We reached the top of the mountain and again we were really surprised at how accessible everything was, most places with steps also had a lift somewhere.

We walked around discovering the Spynx Terrace and also attempted to drag my manual wheelchair through the snow which didn’t really work! We then realised that the train we wanted to catch back down was leaving soon so we went back to the station to find out that that one was already full so we resorted to catching the last train of the day. The staff were really helpful and gave us free drinks vouchers and also came down to the ice palace with us where, earlier we couldn’t get the lift to work. After the guy kicked it a few times it seemed to work and we were allowed to go and explore around sliding everywhere! Luckily we catches the last train back down the Jungfrau and got takeaway pizza to eat on the way to Bern. If you are thinking of going up the Jungfrau, like I said the staff are very helpful and it’s very accessible to most so just do it!

Today we are exploring Bern so as usual keep following us on Twitter and see you later.

Today we headed into Zurich from our hotel at the airport, we debated about getting on the metro into the centre however as my wheelchair wasn’t really charged we thought it would be safer just to drive in. I would say it was safer but on the drive in we had to cope with driving alongside and on tram tracks with them coming from every direction, which was fun! It was also a good job that we didn’t catch the tram as we discovered after that only a limited number of stops and trams were actually accessible.

Anyway we discovered a car park in the centre and headed out for a wonder around by the river taking photos as usual as well as visiting the favorite train station. On walking out of the station I saw a visually impressive skyscraper – the only one in the city and obviously went to try and find it. This was followed by us having some lunch in a random park, when I noticed that my battery was running very low so we headed back to the hotel for the rest of the afternoon and then went out for dinner at a restaurant near the hotel. In conclusion if you wanted to visit Zurich you would probably be best either driving or catching the train.

Tomorrow we will travel down to the Jungfrau and catch the train up to the top of Europe so see you then!

Well if its 26 degrees at night and no air conditioning isn’t enough, I don’t know what is! Anyway today we took the five hour drive to Strasbourg, which included an extra hour getting out of Paris itself even though it’s a Sunday, I guess that’s just Paris.

We soon hit the open French countryside which is a straight road which lasted forever followed by some hills down into Strasbourg. We started with a quick visit to my favorite place in any city, the train station which tied in well with my love for architecture. We then checked in to our hotel which is more like an apartment with a fridge, microwave and cooker and we are just about to eat pizza that we ordered, it seems like Cologne again! Tomorrow we will be exploring Strasbourg and then driving down through Germany into Zurich.

We woke up to a lovely hot day here in Paris. As we are staying next to the financial district, we headed there first. This was simple walk from the hotel along a cycle path and then we were met by the Grande Arche which we had planned to go up. This was a mission in itsself as there’re steps up to the entrance. We soon found signs of how to get to the disabled entrance going up and down little lifts in random office buildings to find out it had actually been closed to the public for 2 years, all that for nothing! We then headed towards Tour Montparnasse starting off on the tram. After we eventually worked out how to get tickets even though we bought the wrong ones to start with, we went down to the platform and, surprisingly for Paris the trams were low floor meaning that it was exactly level with the platform for ease of getting on and off. I was surprised because the metro and RER in Paris have massive steps on to the train so I recommend that if you can, use the tram.

We then walked for about 40 mins towards the tower stopping at Starbucks on the way for lunch as, like typical French style, most of the restaurants had steps leading up to it with no portable ramps. The tower itself is a great alternative to the Eiffel Tower if you want panoramic views of Paris however the Eiffel Tower is currently being renovated to incorporate wheelchair accessible lifts to the first deck. After taking a few photos and a video, we started to head back to the hotel just as my wheelchair battery was running out, this was again easy on the tram apart from our ticket wasn’t validated but a couple of French people sorted this out by forcing the barriers open. We then just spent the rest of the day in our hotel ready for a five hour drive to Strasbourg, good planning that!