European Road Trip – June/July 2013

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!

Firstly I want to apologise for missing yesterday’s post. We set off from Luxembourg to Disneyland Paris, all was fine until we got really lost, so it ended up taking about 5 and a half hours. By that time I was knackered!

Anyway, we started yesterday by a trip to Luxembourg train station, to find breakfast. During this time my PA was chasing pigeons away (I have a phobia of them), when this guy starting shouting at him, “leave the pigeon alone”, to which my PA explained why, but the guy kept repeating “leave the pigeon alone”! I found it quite funny, whilst my PA was ready to teach him a lesson :).

We set off for Disneyland at about midday and as I said above we ended up getting lost as my PAs sat-nav was set up to avoid toll roads. We then went for tea at the Rainforest cafe, to end a tiring day followed by a short walk into the park to get our bearings.

Today we went into the park again and went on some rides. Most of the ones I wanted to go on we’re closed, but oh well! I was surprised that Disneyland has introduced this new wheelchair booking system. Rather than just queuing up to go on a ride, now you have to book a slot at an allotted time to get on. This can be frustrating if you don’t have a strict plan in mind.

We then realised that my wheelchair hadn’t been charged, due to the plug in the hotel not working. So we’re now in the hotel resting whilst it is charging, but plan to go back out to watch the parade later. On the whole, Disneyland is really good for accessibility. My PA said it’s like what everywhere should be like, hopefully in the future…

Last night we had a series of thunder storms in Frankfurt. As we were on the 10th floor of the hotel, it made for good viewing, and pictures. This continued throughout the night so I woke up to a miserable looking morning, for the drive ahead to Luxembourg. As its Sunday, there were no lorries on the roads, which made for a pleasant drive, especially in the forests.

We arrived into Luxembourg, and as we are only staying here for one night, we headed out straight away into the city. Although it is so small, I’ve got to say it seems very posh and mostly accessible. This is apart from the usual European steps into some shops, and cobbled streets, one of which we decided to go down, very slowly as it was so steep! At the bottom we discovered the old city of Luxembourg, for which I was surprised to see an elevator built into the cliff, eliminating the need to walk back up!

We found it quite difficult to find a place to eat this evening, as most places had a step at the front. We may have had reduced options as it’s Sunday, but there didn’t seem many places, so we got some fast food.

Tomorrow we are heading to the train station and then off to Disneyland Paris!

I can’t believe how fast this holiday has gone! Today we explored Frankfurt, which began with an hour walk into the centre. As the trams and metros are not very wheelchair accessible, you could probably get away with it in a manual wheelchair, but I knew that I wanted to use my tripod for photos, so we decided to walk! Like in every city I have been, we wandered around the train station. As it was Saturday is was really busy, so we took one look around the shopping centre, which didn’t have any air conditioning and then decided to get out of there.

We attempted to go up the main tower, but it was closed due to technical problems. However, as I have been up there previously, I can remember that it’s great for accessibility, whilst giving an amazing panoramic view of Frankfurt.
By this time, it was about 26 degrees and humid, so we decided to head back to the hotel and chill out for the rest of the day.

Tomorrow we take a 3 hour drive to Luxembourg City for one night, so more driving pictures will be coming up.

Well, stupid me and I forgot my phone last night, so couldn’t tweet on the cable car! However, I wish I had filmed it, as my PA was crapping himself, as he is afraid of heights. It made good photos though!

In terms of accessibility, well there is nothing, as it’s old, so I took my manual wheelchair and left it at one side of the river and just did a loop round. After that we decided to explore the area, and found a small, local restaurant for some tea.

Afterwards, we stopped off at a local German kiosk, for my PAs to pick up a beer. While I was driving around the shop, the shopkeeper started to speak to me in German, which I don’t understand! My French is alright though. Anyway, I went out of the shop to wait for my PA, in which time, the shop keeper decided to come out and give me a free ice cream and 2 big bottles of orange and lemonade! Who says there are no advantages to being disabled??

Today we headed from Cologne to Frankfurt, along the autobahn, which gave my PA, who was driving, an opportunity to test the van, whilst the other sat in the back scared reading her book…of course we did it safely!

We arrived at our hotel, which is a piece of architecture in itself, and had some lunch. We then decided to head out for a wander through some of the skyscrapers, getting lost in the process! We picked up some stuff for tea and had a picnic looking at the view out of the window (we’re
on the 10 th floor). As our hotel is on one of the main flight paths on the approach to Frankfurt airport, the view was great!

Tomorrow we are going explore more of Frankfurt, including another observation tower, and always the train station. I’m going to be sick of trains by time I return to Bristol.

Keep following twitter for more photos.

I want to start this post by mentioning the palaver that occurred when we decided to order Domino’s pizza last night. And yes we are still in Germany, which is part of the problem! We spent about an hour trying to translate the German words into English, only to discover that they didn’t deliver to the hotel. We then thought we would ring them, which turned out to be fun as well. Eventually they delivered it just for us to my Hotel room door!

Anyway, it has been another hot day wondering around Cologne including the cathedral and of course the train station, which seemed very accessible. However, we had to resorted to walking, instead of using the U-bahn, as again the step is massive, so could only be used in a manual wheelchair. With my love for architecture, we decided to go up the Cologne triangle, which is an observation deck, from which you have a clear view of the city. This was all accessible, so if you are interested in that, it’s a great attraction to see 🙂

We’re now back at the hotel having a chill, planning to go and get the cable car across the river Rhine in a bit. I’m writing this post early as my Internet only lasts 24 hours and cost 30 euros, cheap skate!

We will tweet again when we go onto the cable car later and then tomorrow we head to Frankfurt, so keep following us.

Today was another travelling day in the car to Cologne. We decided to take the route out of Belgium, into the Netherlands, and then down to Germany. This was actually quite a nice way! We headed off about midday and overcame the obstacle of getting my van into the car lift to get out of the hotel even though we lost our ticket. As always, it was manic getting out of Brussels. After we decided to go for a hunt for some lunch. It is surprising how many Belgian towns don’t have restaurants or even food shops or we couldn’t find them anyway! So we were starving by the time we eventually found a deli in a small town.

After lunch, we headed to Cologne and what we thought was going to be a national park, turned out to be loads of fields with Dutch people watering them.

Oh well. We arrived in Cologne at about 5, and had a chilled evening. Looking forward to exploring tomorrow, and going up the Cologne Triangle Tower.