Since we got home from Malta, we have had a few days at home and then off to Yorkshire for a short trip. While we were at home, Racheal enjoyed meeting up with one of her friends from Rangers. Summer was caring for Racheal that afternoon and it was lovely to see the three of them spending time together. They went out for a walk in the rain to a café, spent some time at home showing off the scrapbooks that they’ve been working on and had fun making music together. Auntie Ann w

And finally, the last Malta blog! Kurt, our friendly wheelchair accessible taxi driver, picked us up from our little house to take us to the airport. We had been up at 6am, having done most of the packing the night before. Kurt was due at 8am, but there was a slight miscommunication so he was about 10 minutes late. It didn’t matter as the airport wasn’t far. We could have travelled by bus, but I thought it would be busy at that time and we had all our luggage too. So, with th

Malta carnivals are out of this world, and particularly in Valletta. Lasting for 5 days, incredible floats and people in costumes parade through the streets night and day. Sometimes there are marching bands, more often blaring, tinny music and the carnival song repeats over and over from speakers down the main thoroughfare. There are dancing competitions in St George’s square and float judging too. The first evening, the vehicle floats couldn’t be used because of strong winds

One of the things Racheal really enjoyed in Valletta was going out in the evenings. Walks, meals out and visits to bars with patio heaters! Other places we visited during the day included the secret garden at St Catherine’s monastery. Once an orphanage run by nuns; the nuns still live in the upper floors of the building surrounding the courtyard garden and a turtle lives in the fountain! There were six long steps to get in and some of the paths were too narrow for Racheal’s c

We spent a couple more days exploring outside Valletta, by bus. Due to the carnival, the bus terminal had been moved a little further from the city which was a bit more difficult, especially in the pouring rain. During this time we discovered the smaller bus providing a half hourly service around the centre, with a stop at the end of our road, was also wheelchair accessible. With the crowds attending the carnival celebrations, this was particularly useful. Off we went to Raba

On Malta, nowhere is very far away though the suburbs around Valletta stretch for miles and the amount of traffic makes bus journeys slow. That doesn’t matter to us as the bus ride is part of the fun and we don’t need to be anywhere at a particular time. The walk to the bus station, from our Valletta house, is 10-15 minutes and mostly uphill. Summer valiantly tackles pushing Racheal up the first section, which is very steep, each morning and then takes off at speed on the les

On Thursday, we spent a day visiting some of the sights in Valletta. Our first stop was St John’s Catholic Cathedral in the centre of the city. A ramp took us to the top of the steps, and to the front of the queue. Having had our bags and Racheal’s wheelchair searched, we were admitted to the ornate, gold covered interior and join the line of people slowly making their way around the various smaller chapels surrounding the nave. It was interesting to watch a lady restoring on

Our first two days on the island of Malta involved bus journeys from Valletta to explore towns a little way off. The bus station in Valletta is very well organised, and with the added assistance of the public transport app on my phone, it’s very easy to get around. We had already mastered the use of the app on Gozo. Bus drivers have, mostly, been helpful with stopping in suitable places for us to board the bus, getting the ramp out and often insisting we get on the bus first

The day came for us to leave Gozo. After a lovely week, we packed our belongings managing to reduce our luggage by putting the small suitcase inside a larger one. This made it much easier as we didn’t have the luxury of a taxi this time. Our Airbnb host had kindly said we could check out as late as we liked. This was particularly helpful as it was raining. Just after 11am we locked up our luxurious apartment and set off for the bus stop. Fortunately, the bus came quickly and

The title of this blog was going to be ‘Relaxing and Revelling’, but unfortunately the carnival in Victoria was cancelled due to the rain! Having spent a pleasant few hours enjoying the sun on the beach at Ramla Bay on Friday, and the morning on our balcony on Saturday, we set off to Victoria after lunch to enjoy the delights of a Gozo carnival. Soon after we arrived the rain started and, although we didn’t know at that point that the carnival procession had been cancelled, w

Once we had settled into our Gozatian abode, we spent the next three days exploring the island. Victoria is the biggest town on Gozo and only a 15 minute bus ride away. From the bus station we walked up the main street to the citadel, the historic fortified town, perched high on a hill overlooking the modern town. A short, but very steep, road rose from the street to the visitor centre. A kind priest insisted on pushing Racheal up to the entrance, and from the visitor centre

We set off on the last day of January to Southend Airport, driven in our car by Summer’s dad, to stay overnight in an accessible room at the Holiday Inn Express. The room had a carer’s room adjacent with connecting door, which is always convenient. It wasn’t the largest accessible room, but it did for a night. The next morning we made our way to the terminal building, finding a luggage trolley in a car park which made it much easier to manage our two large suitcases two large

Another short trip to keep the Gap Year ticking over until we set off on more foreign adventures. This time, it was a four night stay at Lee Valley youth hostel in Cheshunt. We checked in on Monday afternoon, to stay in their wheelchair accessible room which was in a lodge adjacent to the main building. There was a single bed and a double with bunk above, and an accessible wet room. The kitchen area in this lodge also had some accessible features such as lowered, wheel-under

During January we are having a break from our longer travel adventures, but our Gap Year fun continues. The first weekend of 2026 was spent staying in the Martello Tower in Aldeburgh, on the coast of Suffolk. My brother, Stuart, joined us for this weekend as our post-Christmas get together. This trip needed some additional planning, due to its inaccessibility but, as we holiday in Suffolk every year, I was able to make a couple of reconnaissance visits last year and the year

We were very impressed with the accessibility at Jugendherberge Leipzig (International Youth Hostel Association), so I wanted to write a blog specifically about the features we found here. The first thing to note is that the youth hostel is within the low emissions zone of Leipzig, however by emailing the City Council a few weeks before we travelled, as Blue Badge holders, we were given an exemption. The youth hostel does charge for parking, but again as Blue Badge holders pa

You may have noticed that the last blog only mentioned days 1,2 and 4 in Leipzig. This is because on day three we took the train to Berlin for the day, well the afternoon really! The fast train would have take two hours each way, but the cost was prohibitive, so we chose the much cheaper and slower option, which involved changing trains half way, taking three hours. We would arrive in Berlin at lunchtime and catch an evening train back, returning to Leipzig quite late. The f

Yes, more Christmas markets! After our brief stop in Prague, we continued into Germany. Our destination was Leipzig youth hostel, but we broke the journey at Meissen for lunch. Wandering around the town we found a delightful square containing a small Christmas market. The youth hostel in Leipzig provided us with truly accessible accommodation, but I will write about that later as it deserves a blog of its own. We were to stay for five nights giving us four full days in the ar

The drive from Vienna to Prague should only have taken around three and a half hours, so we had loaded as much as possible into the car the night before ready for an early start. The aim was to get to the outskirts of Prague around lunchtime and spend the afternoon in the city. However, the weather was against us and most of the drive was in thick fog. Although we didn’t get to Prague until 3 o’clock in the afternoon, I was still determined that Racheal and Summer should get

Our first day in Vienna we walked around the Opera House multiple times! Having come up from the Vienna Underground right next to it, we walked around two sides to get to the Tourist Information Centre, then past it to go to the Museum Cafe for lunch. Then back past it on a different side to find the accessible toilet, and around again to book tickets to a concert for the following day! It’s an imposing building but we didn’t find time to go inside to see the impressive inter

Our drive from Salzburg to Vienna allowed for time to leave the motorway in search of lunch. So we found the small town of Ybbs on the bank of the River Danube. Sadly it looked far from blue in the grey weather. After a short walk through the old town, we found a cafe by the name of Haubis (which Norfolk Guiding friends might appreciate!). Back on the motorway for half an hour, then another half hour on smaller roads, we arrived at our next ‘home’ and Herbert, the owner was t