Vineet's London-Europe Trip 2017 Day 10 ( Zurich)

14th June

On the streets of Zurich

So today was going to be the last day of our beautiful trip. It was a bittersweet feeling.. Part of us wanted to stay back but a greater part wanted to be back home soon with our near and dear ones. I for my part was very worried about the way Vineet looked - tanned and almost dehydrated... He had also been skipping his daily one glass of milk in the evenings as dinner was early all these days...😒
So at noon we said goodbye to our hotel in Olten and moved towards Zurich. I was not surprised when we were told that our new driver would be a lady,  coz earlier on one of our drives I had seen a girl as young as in her twentys driving a big bus as ours easily in her red cold-shoulder- top 😍My eyes had widened at her- we have yet to see something like that in our country....
However our lady driver was more experienced and must have been in her 50s (?)  and she drove very well and took us for a short tour of the city of Zurich before dropping us off for a short time near the station for lunch.We had lunch in Burger King at Zurich station and since we still had some time left, we rushed to catch a tram and go towards the lake as our Tour Manager had advised us. He even told us the Tram number ☺. The tram was very accessible and it was a wonderful ride up to where we were supposed to embark. A fellow traveller helped us as to where we should get down, and then we were supposed to walk a short distance towards the lake.

Beside Lake Zurich

 As we were walking towards it,  we saw a church ⛪ on the left hand side and walked towards it. Only to be told at the entrance that we would have to pay 5 euros for entering and a short tour!!  What the heck??!!  To pay to enter a church is the WEIRDEST thing that I've ever come across in my whole life as of now!  I don't think those guys at the counter have read the Bible wherein Jesus himself beat and drove out all those people who had made the Temple  (Church during the days of Christ) into a marketplace for their stuff. Read - JOHN 2:16 And here they were taking money to let in people?!!  I was so shocked and angry that I forgot to mention this part,  but I told them they were doing a horrible,  miserable thing. And I refused to pay them any money and walked out with a vow to report this to higher church authorities. I asked them the name of the church,  but they deliberately told me the Dutch name so I couldn't remember it (but they're wrong, I will hunt it out and make my point soon😠)

FRAUMUNSTER  CHURCH, ZURICH

Okay!! Grand update! GUESS WHAT! GOOGLE HELPED ME FIND THE NAME OF THE CHURCH - "FRAUMUNSTER  CHURCH " IN ZURICH. YES. THATS THE ONE, THOSE ARE THE PEOPLE!
 And I thought I heard them vaguely making an excuse to the extent that they needed money for the maintenance of the church as it was a heritage site (I could be wrong here, nevertheless). As far as my little knowledge goes, a heritage site is taken care of by the government. Secondly, in the Cologne Cathedral, entry was free and if anyone wanted to opt for a guided tour of the whole church right upto its highest floor, only then they needed to pay a small amount. That was so so OKAY. And THIS was NOT OKAY AT ALL!! I even felt ashamed to see a couple of Asian (maybe Chinese or Japanese) tourists paying to enter the church... 😑


Anyways, still smarting,  we moved towards the lake and what do we see on the road?  - three guys on motorised wheelchairs roaming about the streets and basically having a good time! 😊 Oh it was such a heartwarming sight....  Then there was this guy playing the bagpipe near the lake while a small boy was making huge water bubbles with the help of his grandfather. There were the words "PEACE" written on a small board behind them. And I thought what a perfect way to end our wonderful trip! PEACE!  Much needed in the world today!

So now it was time to head back to where our bus was waiting to take us to the airport. And soon it was time to say goodbye to Zurich, Switzerland. We went back the same way- via Oman Airways and Muscat. This time we didn't get Vin's wheelchair wrapped as we had learnt our hard lesson while coming. It was a good decision.

At Zurich Airport

It was a difficult journey while returning as we were already jet-lagged and spent most of the hours sleeping away and thereby missed dinner, and we didn't have time for breakfast also the next day. By late noon we reached New Delhi Airport and then rushed to catch our evening train back home. Only when we had seated ourselves comfortably in our coach that we heaved a sigh of relief. But by then Vin looked weak and dehydrated. I immediately took care of him and made him feel better as much as I could. We all longed to be in the comfort of our home and with our near and dear ones soon.
And so it happened the next morning! 😃
 NO PLACE LIKE HOME SWEET HOME !!!! 😊☺

Watch our video here -

Vineet's London-Europe Trip 2017 Day 8 ( Olten, Switzerland)

12th June

Today our entire group left for " Jungfraujoch", a glacier-saddle between two high of the highest peaks of the Alps in Europe. (Here is the wikipedia link - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jungfraujoch ) So to reach it, you have to catch a train from Interlaken (in the valley) and change it from Kleine Scheidegg again to reach the top.
We did not go. I had read reviews of Jungfraujoch before coming and they said that it was a highly over-rated tourist spot. That was the first reason and also we were already scheduled to visit Mount Titlis the next day, which was also a snow-covered mountain (though not so high as Jungfraujoch). Then there was the biggest problem of breathing at that height which I cannot bear. I have suffered due to it when we had visited 'Zero Point" in Sikkim, India earlier. I did not want to risk that trouble again. Fourthly, there were changing of trains to be done and frankly I didn't know how much of a trouble it would be for Vin in his wheelchair. And lastly, we wanted to take a bit of rest after all those hectic days of continuous touring.
So. We slept. We slept so late that we almost missed breakfast! 😜😅Then we had lavish baths 😄and after a delicious lunch (from the hotel restaurant), in the evening we got dressed and decided to go for a short walk towards the town of Olten nearby where we could also see some church steeples and I wanted to visit one 🙏


                

It was a lovely walk and we enjoyed walking beside the fields of Switzerland into the town where we saw very few people and some kids on bicycles. We saw sheep grazing and finally we found a church where we went in and prayed. We thanked God for the beautiful trip of our lives and returned back to the hotel where we met our group buddies who had already returned. And we found our dinner packed neatly and left for us by our Tour Manager. God bless him! 😇

Also I would like to share with you all the awesome "adaptable room" we got here , even though it was on the 1st floor. The door to the Bathroom was wide , there was a shower tool, toilet had handle bar, and there was even an Emergency thread! Have a look at the pics -

 

And here is a short video I made of us -

Vineet's London-Europe Trip 2017 Day 7 (Black Forest and Rhine Falls)

11th June

The Black Forests of Germany in the background

Today we proceeded towards the Black Forests of Germany and therein we stopped at the largest cuckoo clock and the original cuckoo clock factory. One of the building was wheelchair accessible with a lift but the other one was not- not at least till what met my eyes... Have to Google about it too 😐
            So at least Vin was able to go around in the accessible shop and admire the various Swiss watches, etc on display. Then we moved on to the Rhine Falls. Here too,  there was a wheelchair/accessible path just a few paces away from the stairs that went down towards the Falls, but again,  No Signboards😒😑
I wandered around ,  went down the stairs and luckily saw a baby in a pram coming from that way and heaved a sigh of relief!

Once down,  we crossed a small bridge and then there were stairs again to go further down to where the ferries were. We saw a small makeshift lift just at the entrance. BUT IT WAS LOCKED!!

YOU CAN SEE A VIDEO OF THAT LIFT   HERE

So again I went down the stairs and looked for alternatives or ways, but NONE. Again we were left behind from our group and there was a big crowd and queues to go into the numerous ferries with different scheduled timings. I went up to one of the ticket counters and asked the man there about how to use the lift. He said we have to give him a copy of Vin's passport and a government 'disability certificate'and he would give us the keys to it. I ran towards Vin and papa to give them this information when I saw papa carrying Vin and coming down along with our dear Tour Manager. They left the wheelchair on top of the stairs as it was very sunny and there was no shade nearby. Papa is a loving💕 papa and luckily we found a bench to sit on while we waited for our ferry to return from its previous trip. It came and we went for our exciting ferry-ride towards the Falls. And no,  the ferry was not wheelchair accessible. I suppose there are none in the world? I read about Venice's famous gondolas were going to be made accessible,  but I have not updated myself about this( which I should be doing)

On the ferry ride finally!

This time we were allotted rooms on the 10th floor of the hotel in Germany. We had a long wait for the lift although there were 3 of them but of 3 various sizes - small,  medium and large!  😂
The view from the balcony was beautiful as we could see almost the entire city of Ludwigshafen  and the bridge. 

Vineet's London-Europe Trip 2017 Day 4 (Paris Disneyland)

8th June 2017

Today we were slated for Eiffel Tower and Disneyland Paris. We opted out of going up the Eiffel Tower as we wanted to use that time for going around it☺😋So we went towards the wheelchair entry which was closed (strangely why we didn't ask),  but as it was early on,  the main queue was short and we proceeded through it. We crossed over to the other side towards the river and the bridge and took fotos. Then we crossed back again towards the garden side and took a lot of mandatory poses with the Eiffel Tower. Then we proceeded towards Disneyland.

Disneyland was on the outskirts and covered acres of land area. But once inside, we were amazed to see the sea of people in there!  Our tickets were pre-booked and we had the option of going either to the Disneyland Park or Disneyland Studio. So people with kids(like us) opted for the former and off we went.
No one at the ticket checking counter told us about the Special Green Card (sorry I can't find it to upload a pic of it, but will do so as soon as I find it 😋)

 It is absolutely necessary for visitors on a wheelchair and though I had read about them in my SB groups on FB,  it completely escaped my mind that day. It was only when we went to go for a boat ride that the lady escort told us about it and by then we were half beyond the castle. Its funny for a place like Disneyland not to have a Notice or Poster regarding this. We were tired, disappointed and didn't know what to do. Papa is a loving papa 💕 and said he would go and get the green card for Vin while mummy and Tia would go around. It was long before they came back with the card and by then it was time for the parade. We enjoyed the parade and it was time to leave. But we had a good time and brought back with us some beautiful memories.... 😊☺😍

Here is short video I made of the Disneyland Parade - 

Vineet's London-Europe Trip 2017 Day 3 ( Towards Paris)

7th June

When we woke up the next day with the sun shining brightly through the blinds,  I muttered under my breath 😜😅 This weather could have been yesterday 😠😫😭
Anyways,  we found that the front seats of our coach had been occupied again, and this time our dear co-passenger refused to give up his seat inspite of our Tour Manager's requests. So our Tour Manager gave up his own seat and some other good people shifted back to make space for him. He announced it in the bus that since we have a special child with us,  could everyone kindly leave the first seats for him and his dad on one side as he would not be able to have any front view which others could have by standing.

When we arrived at the border of U.K. towards France, we had to clear our Immigration. And here it was very kind and thoughtful of an official to come up to our bus and get it done for Vineet and our family without having to go into the building which was some way off.That was really really sweet of them! 😊☺

Anyways we moved towards the Eurotunnel. Oh and another thing!  This morning Papa had an idea- he suggested we put 2 diapers one on top of other,  so when one got soiled, we would simply remove it and there would be no hassle to put on the second one as we realised there were no changing beds in disabled toilets. It WORKED! 😃 Wherever we stopped for lunch we changed him - it became a routine for the next few days ☺

Into the Eurotunnel (From U.K. to France side)

In the evening when we were checked into our hotel on the outskirts of Paris,  we realised that even the lifts were of so small in size that only Vinisha could squeeze into it along with Vineet in his wheelchair. The rooms were also not wheelchair-accomodating, although I realised afterwards that maybe there were, but not available for us... So if you are planning for a similar trip as us, please do ask your Tour manager for a ground floor room or a specially-adapted room for people on a wheelchair. We got one only in Switzerland. 

Vineet's First Overseas Trip 2017 (A preview)

Have I been waiting to write this very special event in Vineet's life or what 😃😀😀!!! It was a very special blessing by God in All our lives as we had thought of going on a Europe Tour sometime later in our lives,  but we had no idea that it would happen so soon!  This year itself!

            So going back a little into my earlier post on the #JustinBeiber Concert post, we were going through a  couple of travel brochures online just for fun,  and we stumbled upon this very attractive offer from #ThomasCookTravels for a Budget Europe Trip . We sat and calculated a lot of things 😌😀 and thought it was a nice deal considering our family of four.  We consulted friends and finally one day Papa clicked on the "Book" tab and there was no looking back then 😃☺
            To cut the story short,  let me just say that in the next few posts,  I will be sharing our travel details but mainly I will be focussing on the #accessibility issues and how we managed Vineet's incontinence. Also his fooding part. So if you are thinking of doing something as exciting (and adventurous 😁😜) as us,  you can read on and also contact us at - spinabifidainindia@gmail.com

P. S. - We stocked on Vin's diapers and all his stuff ( but naturally) and took 2 of each - one set for the main luggage and one smaller set for the hand luggage. We bought a small size 'Rice-cooker' for his daily "khichdi' lunch meal and rice and dal along with his fav cornflakes. I also took some meal supplements for emergencies ( airplane companies are playing up these days and can't be trusted all the time as I was about to realise 😒😒😑) And of course,  another folding wheelchair (coz the earlier one got spoiled by the sea waters of Puri)

I would also love to have feedbacks on these posts from travellers on wheelchairs and maybe some more travel tips and hacks for our future travels (hopefully 😊)

Thankyou for going through!  🙏💕