A short 'afternote' about our Europe Trip with Vineet

Phew!! Feeling quite accomplished now that I've finished documenting Vineet's trip to Europe before my memory gave way! 😜 So there were a few small things I wanted to point out to parents with a child as special as Vineet.

1. So when we came back I found that Vineet's SB site had a blister kind of thing at the bony part. Big mistake on our part - we had forgotten all about his cushion in this trip! 😱 It did not occur to us at all that his travel chair had no cushioning at all. We had carried it to Mumbai (and even left one in the hotel by mistake) but this time we forgot in the hullabaloo. So now we had to take care of this blister which ultimately burst and is now healed, Thankfully by the grace of God Almighty 🙏

2.  I don't know if we searched less or what, but it was so difficult to find a bottle of milk, just plain milk in there. They came in different forms and flavours, but never just pure milk. Quite perplexing...or maybe we didn't try to hard, eh 😏 Nevertheless, that one glass of milk daily was quite irregular for Vin and it made him weak. So if your child is having food issues, carry lots of them with you in portable forms. It would have done us well to carry small milk cartons from here. Next time! 😌

3. Lastly, while writing my posts I was also able to find a lot of exciting things about Italy - especially the " ACCESSIBLE GONDOLAS in Venice!!! I was soooo excited for Vin! They ACTUALLY have them!
Click HERE for the official link for demo videos and online official bookings and you can also contribute to them for making this thing happen!! I will be in touch with them... ☺




Have a look at this awesome video 😃



4. And it also makes me make a note about our very own First Indian Travel Company for the specially challenged - www.enabletravel.com

They also have a Facebook Page - https://www.facebook.com/EnableTravel/

I am still upset at myself  why I didn't come to know of them earlier... Nevertheless, I love their stories and their services ,and after #DeepaMalik our very own Paralympic Champion went for a Europe Trip with them , she has highly recommended their services. They are having an Offer going on at the moment on the occasion of the country's 70 years of Independence - you can nominate a friend or relative with any disability and send them on one of their #70trips without any worry at all! Isn't that a great initiative?!! We won't be able to go on another vacation so soon again 😁 but naturally, but if you want to nominate anyone , here's the  link - CLICK HERE  Those who will nominate will get a Rupees One thousand travel voucher from 'Cox and Kings".
And if you want me to nominate someone for this, please leave a mail to - spinabifidainindia@gmail.com

HURRY!!!!

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 Tour 2017 Day 9 (Mount Titlis and Luzern)

13th June

Entrance to the Cable Car towards Mount Titlis

After having rested the earlier day, we were all charged and excited to go to Mount Titlis today 😃 We dressed in our snow boots and carried our jackets as it was quite warm in the valley. I also carried our regular shoes and sandals to change into later, as it was really warm. We reached Mount Tilis base after a bus ride of around 50 mins and before we knew, we were ushered into the ice cable car and off we zoomed up towards the mountains! It was beautiful, thrilling, exciting and a never-before experience! At the second station we changed into the #Rotair, which is the only revolving ice cable car in the whole world! Until now, we had NO problem at all moving Vinsy in his wheelchair. It was all so smooth, unbelievably accessible. 😀

Then we reached to where the snow was by lift from the rotair station.So now,there was a nice little open restaurant out there with the floor made of iron grills and wood and then there was the snow. So now what to do...how to take Vin into the snow? Simply drag his wheelchair in the snow as far as Papa could. When he got tired, we had reached half way towards where road to the ice-flyer and snow-activities started. We couldn't think of dragging Vin till the "Glacier Park". It was just too far....

Thats the Glacier Park in the background where we couldn't take Vin

So we perched in there and Papa suggested we make a small snow-man. Mum and Tia got to work with some help from Vin and soon enough we had an 'OLAF' ready complete with Vin's cap and papa's shades on it! He looked too cute and endearing, so other tourists also started taking fotos with it! We felt accomplished 😌 Then Tia started going up towards the topmost part and mummy went too so she could get some videos from there to show Vin later.

Yup. So we couldn't enjoy the snow-activities at all and we had thought we would.... It was sort of disappointing....but never mind... 😔

LAKE LUCERNE

We had lunch in one of the Pizzeria there (which was exorbitantly priced) and then we moved towards the town of Lucerne. It was a beautiful town and we had all afternoon and evening to ourselves. We did some shopping there and decided to spend some time sitting quietly by the lake (Lucern). It was a beautiful view and we didn't want to move from there. But then, our Tour Guide had mentioned to us about the " CHAPEL BRIDGE (KAPELLBRUCKE)  nearby and so off we went towards it. THERE WAS NO RAMP at the entrance and there were at least 6-8 steps. Papa told me and Tia to take a look inside and come back, but we don't do stuff like that. Where Vin can't go, we can't go too...not all the time.

ENTRANCE TO THE CHAPEL BRIDGE (NO RAMP)

So we took the pathway beside the lake and the Chapel Bridge and came to another bridge which had 2 steps leading to it and we could carry Vin onto it.We roamed on the other side and found nothing interesting, so we returned the same way. This time we got ourselves a helper who helped transfer Vin the 2 steps down. As I write this, I am thinking maybe I should have gone into the Chapel Bridge and checked for some accessible path... At least they could have put in a sign if there was at all!! 😐

Then it was time to leave for dinner.

After note - When we returned back home to India, I wrote a letter to Mount Titlis authorities about how disappointed and disheartened we were that Vin could not go upto the ice flyer or the snow activities, and how it would be nice if they could arrange a ramp or something to make it happen for people on wheelchairs. And I was pleasantly surprised to receive a reply from them saying how they were looking into the matter and were as eager to help people on wheelchairs reach the.....
Well,  that certainly brightened me up 😃 At least they were thinking....  And it also reminds me to write back to them about a more feasible idea that I got the other day when I was watching a few videos of mount Titlis on YouTube .Hope it convinces them soon!! 🙏😇

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 6 ( River Rhine Cruise and Cologne Cathedral)

10th June 2017

Before going on the River Rhine Cruise

We left the hotel in Brussels and headed towards Heidelberg where we took a short tour and moved towards a town in Germany called Boppard for our River Rhine Cruise🚢. While we could wheel-in Vineet to the boat, there was no lift to carry him to the deck which was on the 2nd floor. So papa volunteered to stay back with Vineet and his beer 🍺 while mummy and Tia went up the deck. We were feeling lonesome without Papa and Vinsy and SURPRISE!!  Papa is a loving💕 papa- he carried Vin up the 3 (albeit short) flight of stairs onto the deck!  Yay!  👏 👏 Now we felt good ☺😊😇

Happy us!!

On to Cologne Cathedral
It was a beautiful place with a massive courtyard,  BUT near the entrance were 2 steps without any wheelchair ramp. Not at least till what met my eyes though......

Here's the video I made of our Germany Trip -

Vineet's London-Europe Trip 2017 Day 5 ( Brussels)

9th June 2017
We moved towards Brussels today. It was past noon when we reached "Mini-Europe" in Brussels. As we had gotten late embarking,  when we entered the main building,  our group was nowhere to be seen! Not a single soul there except a worker outside. We looked frantically for an elevator or lift as we saw a huge flight of stairs right in front of us! 😮😞😟😕 But NOTHING! No signs or boards either! We asked the worker about it but he said he had no idea. But he offered to help us carry Vin up the stairs in his wheelchair. But I thought it was Ridiculous!!  How can they not have a wheelchair accessible route in a place like "Mini-Europe"?!! 😠😠😒
 But we were already late and papa did not allow me to find out more and I forgot about it until when we had to go down the similar way after the tour. Again we carried Vin down the stairs. There must have been around 20 or more of them!
Although the tour inside was very wheelchair-friendly.

And today when I googled 'where is the wheelchair ramp in mini-europe brussels", this is what I got - http://www.minieurope.com/en/practical/faq/  I can't seem to find any maps directing towards mini-europe

Okay, so I finally found the wheelchair route into Mini- Europe. I wish I had checked this earlier, but even so, I find its very far and time-consuming. Especially for travellers like us who have very less time. It would have been simpler and easier to just put in a lift.Or at least they could have sign boards to lead us to the path. Here's the link - http://www.minieurope.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/plan_parking_6_eur.pdf

It reminds me that I have to put in an online complaint regarding this😐😑

Grand Place, Brussels

In the evening we proceeded towards the Grand place which had cobbled streets and after going around for some time, we suddenly noticed that the tubeless,  rubberised wheels of Vin's wheelchair was getting ripped off!! It wasn't that bad,  but henceforth we took precaution .

And here is a short video I made of our stay in Belgium -