Search Results

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 backpacks, small suitcase and assorted other small bags. Racheal doesn’t travel light! Southend airport was easy to navigate once we had dropped off the hold luggage, and before long we were being called to board our EasyJet flight to Malta. We were settled in our seats before the other passengers boarded with Racheal between Summer and me. The three hour flight passed without incident, except that Racheal didn’t like the ‘ding’ before each announcement, her bottom lip trembling each time it happened. Our first stay in Malta is on the island of Gozo. The hostess of the Airbnb that we had booked had kindly arranged for a wheelchair accessible taxi to pick us up from the airport. The driver had to get a special permit as taxis from Malta are not usually allowed to carry passengers on Gozo. The journey involved driving to the west coast of Malta then taking the ferry across to Gozo followed by a short drive to the village of Xaghra (pronounced Sharah). In all it took nearly 2 hours, arriving at our apartment at around 6.30pm. We needed two trips in the lift to get our luggage and Racheal up to the top floor of the four storey building, where we found a spacious flat with three bedrooms, a big open plan living area and balconies front and back with wonderful views. We had just an hour to get ourselves organised before heading out for an evening meal at a tiny restaurant in the village square, 10 minutes walk away. It was a bit of a squeeze to get in, but the meal was tasty and reasonably priced. While we were there it started to pour with rain so we lingered longer until the rain stopped and we could get back between showers. After a good night’s sleep, we spent the first day in the village. In the morning we stocked up at the tiny supermarket around the corner, then after lunch set off for a walk to get our bearings and see the local sights. The main attraction in Xaghra is the Ggantija Temples, Megolithic structures said to be the oldest surviving temples in the world. Racheal was more interested in the palm branch we found on the ground! An interesting first day.

Our first night in Nova Scotia was spent in a budget hotel near Halifax railway station. As we only slept, showered, ate breakfast and waited for our hire car to be delivered, I’ll skip straight on to Bridgewater, just over an hour south of Halifax. Our accommodation was an Airbnb in Upper Lahave, a small, riverside boathouse with open plan living downstairs and two ‘haylofts’ above, and our own jetty. Racheal had a double bed, while Summer and I each had a ladder to climb to our ‘bedrooms’. Sean, the owner, had made a ramp up to the decking so that Racheal could get into the tiny house. Once we had moved some furniture, it was perfectly adequate for our needs and a beautiful place to stay. I won’t describe it further as the photos do a better job. Our first day at the boathouse was spent stocking up on supplies at the local supermarket, spending some time at the launderette, visiting the local museum and exploring the town centre The DesBrisay Museum was small but had some interesting information about the local area, and the curator shared ideas for places to visit. The town centre was not particularly inspiring, but we were impressed with the lengths they had gone to to make small parks accessible. One park had a zigzag of ramps leading down to it from the main street. Having got the essentials sorted out, the second day we set off for Lunenberg, a town on the coast which has many original buildings and is a UNESCO world heritage site. After a picnic lunch we looked in the museum which was housed in an old fisheries building. The museum told the history of the fishing industry and the town, and had an area dedicated to the indigenous Mi’kmaw people. From the museum we climbed the steep hill into the town and enjoyed looking at the old buildings and inside some shops. Access wasn’t always easy due to the steepness of the streets and steps into buildings, but Racheal probably preferred sitting outside in the sunshine while we took it in turns to go in the shops anyway. Day three saw us return to Halifax to have a proper look around. I would like to have gone to the Immigration Museum, but we ran out of time. Again it was a lovely, sunny day. First we explored the waterfront, mainly because it was flat. Halifax is built on a steep hill, a common theme in this part of Canada. We managed to book onto a Harbour Hopper tour. This is a guided tour on an amphibious vehicle, part of the journey being through the roads of the city, and part seeing the sights from the harbour. They had a portable wheelchair lift which they wheeled to a door on the side of the vehicle and, having removed some seats, raised Racheal manually using a crank handle. Our guide, Riley, was fun and informative. It was a big improvement on the tour we did in Toronto earlier in the trip. The splash as we entered the water was impressive and Racheal loved it. On our final day around Bridgewater we didn’t want to go too far as we needed to pack. I visited the laundrette for the third time in four days, while Summer and Racheal went thrift shopping. This was the first big thrift shop we had found and great excitement for Summer! Then we drove along the south side of Lahave river (the Boathouse was on the north shore) to Lahave Bakery - a spot recommended for coffee and treats! There we also found a craft shop and bookshop. The building was an old ship’s outfitters and chandlery with the bakery still using the original tills. From there we found a road onto Lahave Islands, first driving along a spit of land before crossing a number of old wooden bridges between the small islands. It was great fun. We could even drive on the beach! I’ll finish with some photos taken from the Boathouse. The reflections were incredible and the mist made the place feel eerie. We took far too many sunsets and even a sunrise! We loved it here, but time to move on to another part of the province.

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 worktop. The surface outside was gravel in a mesh retainer. We didn’t have any problem pushing Racheal’s Treki, but a fellow guest said he found it very difficult to self propel his wheelchair on it. We only had an hour to get everything unloaded from the car and organised before we caught the train, from the station next door to the youth hostel, into London. We had tickets to see Paddington the musical, which was showing at the Savoy Theatre. It’s a small theatre and only has one wheelchair space per performance. We were shown to the accessible entrance which involved a walk around the block to get to the side of the theatre. It was about a 10 minute walk, but we did see parts of London that you wouldn’t otherwise see. The wheelchair area had a seat for a companion. One of us had a seat the other side of the aisle, but because Racheal’s wheelchair is not too big and attendant brought a second chair so that the three of us could sit together. After a very enjoyable evening, it was late when we got back to the youth hostel by the time we had caught a bus and then the train. On Tuesday, we didn’t rush as we’ve been so late the night before. When we were ready, we made our way into London by train to Tottenham Hale, and then on the underground to Vauxhall. From there we walked along the Albert Embankment past the London Eye to the Southbank Centre where there is a changing places toilet. After lunch at PizzaExpress we headed for the Paddington Experience where we planned to spend the afternoon. However, we discovered that it closes early on a Tuesday. We quickly came up with a plan B, which was to take a boat along the Thames to Canary Wharf. A pleasant 35 minute journey in the sunshine enjoying a different view of London, and all for £6.55 as Racheal got a concessionary fare and, with her access card, Summer and I were free, as her carers. We made our way to the London Museum of the Docklands, which we explored for a couple of hours until they closed. It is a fairly small museum, nicely laid out, but not as sensory/interactive as I had hoped. Our next stop was a café to give Racheal her tea, then a walk around the winter lights which illuminate the Canary Wharf area in January. They were quite impressive. Some were too far away for Racheal to see, but those she could get close to she really enjoyed. On day three, we had planned to go to Windsor Castle, but discovered that it was closed on Wednesdays. At least this time we found out before we set off. So so we changed our plans once again and decided to explore Camden Market, adjacent to Camden Lock on the Regents Canal. This time our journey involved a train, the tube and a London bus. It started to rain so after a wander along Camden High Street and a look at the lock, we made our way to the covered market. We spent a pleasant few hours soaking up the atmosphere, the sights, sounds and smells. On our final day in London, we managed to get to the Paddington Experience at County Hall. It consisted of a series of rooms which had been made to look like Paddington Station, Windsor Gardens, the rooms in the Brown’s home, and the Peruvian jungle. There were things for Racheal to feel and activities to take part in as we became immersed in the life of Paddington Bear and prepared for ‘Marmalade Day’. Finally, we headed to Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, to watch the matinee of Disney’s musical, Hercules. Again we were very well looked after by the access team and thoroughly enjoyed the show. After a meal in a nearby restaurant, we caught the bus and train, once again, to return to the youth hostel. As one of Racheal’s great pleasures is transport, she really had a treat in London!

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 before. The tower is owned by the Landmark Trust, an organisation that renovates and lets out unusual and historic buildings as holiday accommodation. The Martello Tower had been on my wish list of places to stay for sometime. In 2024 I met with the housekeeper to see if it would be possible to stay there with Racheal. I found that, if we could overcome the obstacle of 13 steps up to the drawbridge, we would have no trouble managing inside as the interior is spacious and all on one level. The ground around the moat is banked up to the top of the steps and over the years people have created a footpath which was manageable with Racheal‘s off-road wheelchair. However, at the top of the path we were faced with the side profile of the top two steps where we would need to make a 90° turn onto the drawbridge. I measured the width, depth and rise of the steps so that I could build a frame to make a platform which we could access from the footpath by way of our portable ramps. I have to confess, I was a little nervous until we had successfully negotiated it the first time. I was confident that the frame was strong and the dimensions were right but there was a ‘what if it doesn’t work’ niggle at the back of my mind. Before using it with Racheal, I tried it with our trolley full of luggage and it worked a treat. When we arrived at the Martello Tower, the weather was bitterly cold but surprisingly warm and cozy inside. Once we had unloaded the essentials from the car, we set about making it feel like home including the last outing for our travel Christmas tree as it was still before the 6th of January. Built in the early 1800s the tower was built as coastal defence and would have housed up to 25 soldiers with four gun positions. It’s thick rounded walls providing resistance to enemy attack. This particular one is unusual in that it is a quadrafoil shape, but that lends itself quite nicely to the creation of rooms. We entered through the kitchen area, with a bathroom area screened off to one side. In the centre is a large dining area, and off this two bedrooms and a sitting room closest to the sea. The rooms are screened with wooden panelling but not divided all the way to the high ceiling. In the sitting room there is an efficient log burner, but we had to turn the heating down in order to use it or we would’ve cooked! Each room has a window with steps up to it and big wooden shutters. There are two staircases up to the roof where you have an amazing 360° view of the sea and river, but with the temperature is well below freezing it wasn’t somewhere you wanted to linger long in January. My visit to the roof was at sunrise! On Saturday we decided to visit Sutton Hoo, stepping even further back in time to 600AD. As it was still extremely cold, Racheal and I sat in the café while Stuart and Summer went off to explore the ancient burial mounds. After lunch we looked at the exhibition, explored some ‘touch objects’ and enjoyed chatting to ladies who were demonstrating traditional crafts. Sutton Hoo has a new Changing Places Toilet making it much easier to stay all day. Sunday, we decided to make the most of our fortified accommodation, so while Stuart went off to explore another local castle Summer Racheal and I stayed cosy and warm in the tower. Summer and Racheal spent most of the day doing a number of craft projects that we had brought with us while I had the very rare opportunity to spend hours reading a book that I’d received for Christmas. We had seen a little snow on Saturday, but on Monday morning we woke to a covering of snow. It was time to pack up and return to Norfolk where they had had much more snow than us. Stuart left early he had much further to drive and we loaded the car, taking care on the slippery path. The weekend was over far too quickly. It had been an amazing place to stay, probably a once in a lifetime, but we have more exciting Landmarks to stay in later this 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 parking was free. The car park is about 100 m from the youth hostel, but we were able to unload immediately outside the door and move the car to the car park afterwards. A short ramp gives access to the main entrance, reception and small common area. As with many European and youth hostels there is no self catering kitchen, but breakfast is included in the price and other meals are available for a fee. Due to Racheal being on blended diet, we do find it more difficult when there is no members kitchen. However, as our stay here was towards the end of our four week trip we had managed to prepare enough meals at previous places which we stored in our portable freezer. From the reception there was a lift to access all floors, with the accessible rooms being located on the second floor. Here we found a wide corridor to a number of accessible rooms. The door to the corridor was quite heavy which might be difficult for some. We had chosen a room without ensuite, partly to keep the cost down and also to have a larger room. As you can see from the floor plan, six bedrooms share two large accessible bathrooms on one side of the landing, and there are accessible room rooms with ensuite the other side of the landing. Our room (201) was very spacious with two sets of bunkbeds, with the top bunk folding up against the wall out of the way to make space to use a mobile hoist. This arrangement suited us well, as Summer and I were able to use one set of bunkbeds and Racheal effectively had a single bed. There was also a pull-out bed in the room meaning that four people can still share even when one of the bunks is folded up. There was also a table, four stools, and wardrobes/cupboards. There was plenty of space for Racheal‘s changing table in the room and of course our trusty trolley! The bathrooms were huge with an accessible sink, toilet and shower area. As well as the wall mounted shower seat, there was a free standing shower seat in each bathroom. There were plenty of grab rails and the bathrooms were always warm. In the dining room, on the first floor, a continental buffet breakfast was served every morning. There were tables of varying sizes with plenty of space between and staff who were happy to move furniture if needed. We met a young man who is a full time wheelchair user who travels independently, and he was very impressed with the facilities at the youth hostel too. There is also a washing machine and dryer available for guests’ use, a supermarket across the road and a tram stop about 5 minutes walk away. Most tram stops in Leipzig are fully accessible, including this one, but there are no concessions for people with disabilities or their carers, from outside Germany. We found Leipzig an easy city from an access point of view. See our Leipzig blog for more information. https://www.wheelyamazinggapyear.com/post/weihnachtsm%C3%A4rkte-and-bach

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 first difficulty we encountered was that German trains, despite having a wheelchair symbol on certain doors, are not very accessible. The symbol obviously denotes the area in the carriage where a space may be found to travel in a wheelchair, but there is still a large step into the carriage. Fortunately fellow passengers were willing to help lift Racheal in her chair each time which we were grateful for. The second, and more serious problem, was that on arriving at the station where we were due to change trains we found the lifts between platforms were not working. After speaking to the lady in the ticket office we found our only option was to wait an hour for the next train to go one stop further along the line where we could change to the Berlin train without even needing to change platforms. If only the ticket office in Leipzig told us to change there. So by the time we arrived in Berlin, it was nearly 2 pm and the light was already starting to fade. We had carefully planned what we wanted to see, knowing that we wouldn’t have a a lot of time. This definitely paid off. We first made our way to the Berlin Wall Visitor Centre where we watched a short film about the history of the wall, looked at the exhibition and went up to the viewing platform where you can look down on a short section of the wall which has been preserved. A photograph showed a church, on the East German side of the wall, being destroyed as late as 1985, simply because it obscured the soldiers’ view. We walked through the memorial garden and down to the river by which time it was almost dark and the main buildings were illuminated. From the river, it wasn’t far to the Brandenburg gate, the Jewish memorial, the homosexual memorial and the Reichstag building. The memorials were a particularly chilling reminder of the brutality of the communist regime. Although we didn’t have long in Berlin, we did manage to see the things that we had particularly chosen to see. The city wasn’t very well lit, and we agreed that we didn’t feel comfortable to stay any longer, so we made our way back to the railway station where we found somewhere to eat a meal before boarding the return train. This journey was much smoother because we now knew which station was the best to change trains. We arrived back in the, now familiar and well lit, city of Leipzig around 10pm, and caught the tram back to the youth hostel tired but satisfied with what we had achieved.

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 area. 10 minutes walk from the youth hostel was a convenient tram stop giving us easy access to the centre. The first two days we spent exploring the city, staying into the evening so that we could enjoy the Christmas lights. Leipzig has one of the largest and oldest Christmas markets, so there was plenty to see here. Our final day in Leipzig was a Sunday. As in most of Europe, the shops were closed on Sundays and we had got to saturation point with Christmas markets, so we headed to the Bach Museum next to St Thomas’ church. Bach lived and worked in St Thomas’ church choir school, part of which is now the museum. It was fully accessible and interactive with lots of music to listen to through headphones, organ pipes which made sounds when touched, and a composing studio where you could try out different combinations of sounds and musical notes. Almost everything had braille labels, and there were raised floor plans too. The museum provides touch tours for those with visual impairments. We could have stayed much longer, but lunch beckoned. (Racheal’s mealtimes have some flexibility, but only within a certain range due to the need for medication too.) After lunch we visited Bach’s old haunt, St Thomas Church with his statue outside and stained glass window in his honour. The organ has been replaced since Bach’s day, but there were some interesting ‘rules’ recorded from that era. Next we walked to the larger St Stephen’s Church where we found a queue of people waiting to enter. We ascertained that there was to be a carol service and decided it would be a lovely way to end our pre-Christmas Europe adventure. We were treated to awe inspiring organ music, a brass band, and beautiful singing from a ladies’ and a children’s choir. The congregational carols we sang in English rather than the printed words in German. Either no one noticed or they didn’t mind! Once again, Racheal thoroughly enjoyed the music and joined in with the carols in her own way. When we left the church it was dark and we made our way back to the youth hostel to pack for the long journey home.

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 a glimpse of this beautiful city. We parked near a Metro station on the west of the city and made the short journey to the centre. We emerged in Wenceslas Square as the sun was setting. A large Christmas tree, Christmas market stalls and lights made it seem magical. We made our way through the streets to the famous astronomical clock which was surrounded by more Christmas market stalls, another Christmas tree and a nativity scene. So far the prices at the markets had, on the whole, been very expensive but the Prague markets were much more reasonable. A little shopping was done before we stopped for a cup of spiced apple juice and some chimney cake, a Czech specialty, while Racheal had her tea by a brightly lit angel! We had to leave Prague too soon. This was just an overnight stop en route to Leipzig in Germany. Our accommodation for the night was a 20 minute drive from the Metro station, in the village of Unhöst. Advertised as a ‘tiny house’, it was much more spacious than we expected and somewhere we would love to have stayed longer if we’d had more time but the next day we were back in the car for the next leg of the journey.

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 interior decor. The Museum Café was quite an experience. It’s one of THE cafés in Vienna. Although there were steps to enter, a doorbell marked with a wheelchair symbol summoned someone to bring a ramp. We were shown to our table with its velvet seats and chose soup followed by cake. Racheal thought my orange cake was very tasty and kept asking for more! Alexander, in the ticket booth, went to great lengths to find us suitable tickets for a classical, Christmas concert. He had studied at UEA and was interested to hear about our travels. Once we had our tickets, we headed back on the underground to our car, and then to the house via an essential supermarket trip. The second day, we chose to take the tram into the city alighting near the Opera House, of course! We found a very pink café to have coffee and give Racheal her lunch, before eating our picnics in the square outside St Stephen’s cathedral. Once we’ve found a suitable place to do Racheal’s personal care, we often keep to that place rather than hunting out new places. In Vienna, this was a department store with a large, solid changing table in the baby change. No hoist, but better than resorting to disabled toilet floors. The top floor of the shop also gave great views over the city. After our visit to the cathedral, we started on Christmas markets. There was a small one around the cathedral, then we moved on to a much larger one at Karlsplatz (back past the Opera House) by which time it was starting to go dark. The Christmas markets have more atmosphere after dark, and Racheal seems to enjoy them more. This might be because she can see the lights and there is sometimes entertainment, like a children’s choir singing in Karlsplatz. They are also more crowded in the evening which makes it more difficult to manoeuvre Racheal’s chair. This particular evening we had the concert at the Capuchin Church to look forward to. A string quartet with visiting trumpet player and soprano singer were to perform a selection of Christmas music. The Roman Catholic Church was not as ornately decorated as some we have been in, but did have a fair smattering of statues. A large Advent Ring was suspended from the ceiling and large candles were lit in front of the altar. As I’ve not taken Racheal to a classical music concert of this kind before, I thought it best to sit at the back where we could make a quick exit if she didn’t like it. I need not have worried. She loved every minute and I had to remind her to enjoy it quietly, which she did as soon as I asked her. It was wonderful to see her getting so much pleasure from the performance. Day three in Vienna and the sun finally came out! Until now, the white and pale grey buildings against a mostly grey sky had not looked as impressive as they might, but the sunshine changed that dramatically. Our first stop, the old Imperial Palace buildings now mostly house museums. From there we walked through a park to the Rathaus and another Christmas market before exploring some grand streets. On our final day in Vienna, Summer took us to the Hundertwasser Village. A quirky area in the city where the buildings were designed to be fun and colourful, with few straight lines or level surfaces. Our next stop was Mozart Mythos, an immersive experience of Mozart’s life and music using sound, lights and projection. There were plenty of things Racheal could be involved in and it was a good end to our time in Austria before packing up for the next stage of our journey. One of the things Racheal is particularly enjoying about our Europe trip is using public transport. Here are a few tram and underground photos in Vienna.

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 there to welcome us and show us around. The steps were a bit of a challenge both for Racheal’s chair and our trusty trolley, but I did know about them beforehand and the spacious accommodation made up for the inconvenience. The bungalow was located a few miles outside Vienna, on the edge of the forest, in a quiet cul-de-sac. We had the evening to settle in ready to discover the delights of Vienna the next day. Travelling days are always hard work. However organised we are, there is always quite a lot to load in the car because we need most things the morning we are leaving. The hoist comes into two pieces and is strapped to one side of the car in the back. The changing table folds and goes the other side. Summer’s rucksack and our suitcase have their designated spaces and Racheal’s smaller ‘indoor’ chair folds and goes on a back seat. The trolley, which holds medical equipment, medicines, electronics and other essentials, has our big electric freezer/coolbox and Racheal’s ‘bed bag’ strapped on top. This fits neatly behind Racheal in the car, secured in place with a ratchet strap. It makes good use of the space behind her chair and is much easier when we stop on journeys as we just have the one thing to get out of the car before we can get her out. And when we arrive we have to unload everything, find how it’s going to work in the new place, and get on with Racheal’s evening care routine as well as making sure we are fed and rested. We’ve got it off to a fine art now, but it can still be very tiring.

The next stop on our European adventure was the city of Salzburg in Austria. After another day of driving, mostly on motorways, we arrived at our accommodation in Puch, a few miles from Salzburg. I had booked a ground floor flat on the edge of the village. We were welcomed by Bea and her husband who are in the process of renovating the rest of the house. The house was at the end of a lane and had beautiful views of the mountains. The flat was spacious and cosy, with an all important washing machine to catch up on laundry. It was only a 10 minute walk to the bus stop to catch a bus to the city centre. We certainly had a wonderful view while we waited! We only had two days to explore Salzburg so the first day we packed in quite a lot. Firstly the cathedral which was quite different to the Italian churches we had visited in Florence. Around the cathedral was Salzburg’s main Christmas market, but we decided to save that until later and headed for Mozart’s residence. His birthplace wasn’t accessible, but we passed it on the way and even did a bit of shopping in the Spar supermarket underneath it. There wasn’t all that much to see in the house, but Racheal had great fun listening to all the musical boxes in the shop and choosing one to buy. When we came out it was starting to go dark, so we wandered back towards the market, enjoying some Christmas entertainment and a couple of smaller markets along the way. The main market was very busy. There were all sorts of things for Racheal to hear, smell, feel and experience, and of course things to buy! We set off back to catch a bus back around 8pm. This was the first time our travel arrangements didn’t go to plan. There was already a wheelchair user in the one space on the bus meaning we had to wait an hour for the next bus. Racheal didn’t mind at all and enjoyed the sound of the traffic passing, but it did make us much later back and we still had all the evening jobs to do before bed. On our second day we decided to take the funicular railway up to the fortress. A lot of it wasn’t wheelchair accessible, but there were parts we could all get to, including a puppet museum. Summer went round the main building and told us what she had seen, while we explored the courtyard, chapel and cannons! The panoramic views alone made it worth the journey. We spent longer exploring the fortress than expected, and after a late night the previous day, so we decided to go back to the flat. Summer and Racheal caught up with the logbook, and that night Summer showed Racheal how to press the switch on her ‘bed genie’ so she can sit herself up in bed. She was very pleased with herself! (The bed genie is a wedge shaped inflatable pillow which goes under the mattress to raise the head of the bed, similar to a hospital bed.)

We spent two nights staying in a cabin at another HU site near Venice and made the most of our time there. It’s a fascinating city, but not the easiest to navigate in a wheelchair. At the tourist information office we were given a map to show the accessible routes, but it was a black and white photocopy which was difficult to read. Water buses were reduced for wheelchair users and one companion which was helpful as we couldn’t get far at all without using them. We found the staff on the boats and the quays were happy to assist us where needed. The larger boats had indoor seating with safety belts to secure Racheal’s chair, but the smaller boats only had a small area outside that we could access. Fortunately the weather was good if a little chilly. Some bridges had ramps, but not many. We realised that visiting Venice would have its challenges and either required a lot of careful planning or to be content with only seeing the parts that were easy to get to. As we had so little time we settled on using the water buses to get to St Marks Square and the Bridge of Sighs the first evening. The second day we took the water bus to Murano which was more accessible. We enjoyed looking at the glassware and watching the craftsman. By the time we set off to return to Venice the sun was setting. Our second evening we explored the Rialto Bridge area frequently coming to dead ends in the form of steps or canals but it was fun finding our way through the maze. It was a wonderful 36 hours with lots of new experiences. Racheal particularly enjoyed the boat rides and being out after dark.