While working on this edition of the newsletter, I’ve been remembering family holidays and trips, both near to home and abroad I have been on over the years and some good and not so good experiences!
When I was 3 we travelled with one of my cousins from our home in Berlin by car train to Austria. We spent lots of time in the mountains and I had to sit very still on my cousin’s lap as we ascended in a chair lift one day. We travelled around Saltzburg in a horse and carriage and sang Do-Re-Me a bit too loudly for the driver’s liking!
Two years later, we had a caravan holiday in the south of France where the weather was not very sunny and the sea stormy and full of jellyfish which prevented anyone going on the beach for a few days! One day we went to another beach where my father decided to try out my brother George’s surfboard. After a while we realised that Daddy was a speck in the distance! Mummy couldn’t leave 3 children alone on the beach and couldn’t speak much French either! Luckily a windsurfer was further out to sea and managed to pull Daddy back on the incoming tide where they both washed up further along the coast. We had a very celebratory supper that night!
The following three summers were spent on holiday in Cyprus. We stayed in the same apartment complex each year and the first two holidays took different cousins to help us. I spent a lot of time underwater in the pool there and being able to walk around in the water was fantastic. I made everyone laugh as I loved doing my maths workbooks, even on the beach! We didn’t have another surfboard incident but our giant inflatable ring did get washed out to see which made me very upset. A very kind person saw what happened and somehow managed to bring it back to us! On the last flight home I felt something dripping on my head which when it reached my mouth, tasted a bit like Fairy liquid but turned out to be a leaking bottle of champagne from the luggage locker above. Daddy was rather pleased to receive a complementary bottle as an apology from the airline!
The next abroad holiday was a few years later to Guernsey. The flights were more uncomfortable this time for my sister and me as we had both been wearing body braces since our last trip to Cyprus and sitting out of our wheelchairs was very unusual. We stayed in a bungalow near the beach and enjoyed visiting lots of interesting places. As we couldn’t take our Permobil wheelchairs on the plane, we took power packs which mounted onto our manual wheelchairs instead of the big wheels. This enabled Alexandra and I to be independent, but not as fast as we liked so we still had to be pushed on most of the outings. We had an early morning flight home and the air hostess came around with breakfast. She asked Daddy “Would you like Continental or English sir?” to which he replied “Yes please!”. This has now become a family joke!!
In the summer of 2001 we set off on a huge adventure…a Transatlantic voyage on the QE2 and then on to Cleveland, Ohio to visit friends. We couldn’t believe how kind and helpful everyone on board ship was, and every day there were things to do – our favourite was a Sound of Music singing morning! We sailed into New York at dawn and got up on deck in time to see the sun rising behind the skyscrapers in the distance, which looked enormous even from far away! I couldn’t believe we were actually looking at the real Statue of Liberty having seen her so many times in films! We had our breakfast still on board but in the dock watching the traffic outside, which felt very odd after 6 days looking at sea! We had booked a minibus taxi to take us to our hotel but the driver stopped at the wrong entrance so we had to come out rather terrifyingly, into the traffic on 7th Avenue (see 2nd photo!) The hotel staff were very welcoming and as soon as they saw our wheelchairs we were upgraded to an enormous suite on the 42nd floor! We switched on the television and were highly delighted to find that Teletubbies was on! Highlights from the three days spent in NYC included a trip up the Empire State Building, visiting a bookshop at 11.30pm and getting on a public bus with no issues about access. One of the days a very friendly lady stopped us in the middle of crossing a road to ask if Alexandra and I were twins and was so surprised when we told her there was 5 years between us! The next part of the adventure was taking an overnight Amtrak train to Cleveland. The journey took longer than expected as we had to wait for a few hours for some extra carriages with no power on the train. It got dark while we waited so Daddy and I went to bed in the specially adapted disabled compartment; Alexandra and Mummy were in another one further down the train. In the morning I was woken early by the train going over bumpy tracks so got up and watched Lake Eerie whizzing past. At Cleveland station the platform was a long way below the door but before we had time to worry, a portable electric lift had arrived! We spent 10 days exploring Cleveland with our friends being wonderful guides; everywhere we went we were welcomed access was so easy for wheelchairs. As the train journey had been so long, our friend very kindly offered to drive us back to NYC. This was a 10 hour journey but we were happy to see lots of American scenery on the way back. We fitted in a bit more sightseeing before sailing home again on the QE2 – we sailed out past the Twin Towers exactly a month before 9/11.
Our next trip abroad was in 2005 when we were lent a chalet in the French Alps. As flying there was too complicated, we set off in our van on a 4 day road trip, stopping after 3 hours each day and staying in Campanile motels seeing new towns each day. The final part of the drive was up a very windy mountain road which was very exciting. We arrived at the chalet and soon after us, our friends from Sidlesham (who had a flat nearby) arrived with the ramp they had custom built to fit the step into the main room. The views were spectacular and the weather got hotter and hotter as the week went on. Daddy and I had a fantastic ride up a mountain in a cable car, which my manual wheelchair fitted into perfectly. We had a delicious lunch at the café at the top before another stunning ride down, this time sharing with a couple who we discovered were from Chichester! Alexandra found that the high altitude and hot weather made her feel quite breathless and we found as we journeyed home again she soon recovered.
In the years between all our big holidays we have been to lots of different self-catering cottages and houses around England and Wales. A couple of times when I was a child we rented a caravan in the middle of a field of sheep! The loo was in a shed in the farmyard which was a huge thrill at bedtime! My parents always wanted to give Alexandra and me “normal” experiences and once pulled us backwards up a very bumpy field so we could see the view from the top. Alexandra wasn’t very amused by being thrown about on the way up but I think we were all happy we achieved it! As swimming was such an important part of our physio routine, we often looked for places with indoor heated pools. We found a lovely complex of farm cottages in Dorset where the pool was perfect with a jacuzzi too, but we also had one holiday in Wales where the pool was in a barn. The water was slightly green and not well heated so Daddy would carry me wrapped in a towel across the yard and back into a hot bath!
Two years ago I found out about the website Accomable (see page 6 of Travel & Tourism, Issue 1, 2018) and we booked a family holiday in Cornwall with George and his family. As it was a long drive we decided to stop overnight in Exeter and stayed in a Jury’s Inn. I highly recommend this chain! The rooms are really spacious and the beds are very comfortable! The restaurant is in the same building too which is much less stressful than going across a service-station car park! When we reached the bungalow we immediately said “we are coming back next year!” as it was huge, 100% accessible and had stunning views across the bay. In the five days we were there, we walked on the Costal Footpath and visited local beaches – some much better than others for my Permobil, and had a day trip to the Eden Project where all the paths were wide. In the disabled loo there was a button for visually impaired people and a voice gave a guided tour to show where the light, sink, loo, flush and hand-drier were! We were sad to leave last April, but tomorrow morning, we are setting off on our return visit, this time for seven nights! By the time you read this I will have come back and will probably be thinking about more travels and adventures!
If you go on an exciting holiday this summer, please write and tell me about it and your story will go in the next newsletter!
Lizzie Baily 2018
When I was 3 we travelled with one of my cousins from our home in Berlin by car train to Austria. We spent lots of time in the mountains and I had to sit very still on my cousin’s lap as we ascended in a chair lift one day. We travelled around Saltzburg in a horse and carriage and sang Do-Re-Me a bit too loudly for the driver’s liking!
Two years later, we had a caravan holiday in the south of France where the weather was not very sunny and the sea stormy and full of jellyfish which prevented anyone going on the beach for a few days! One day we went to another beach where my father decided to try out my brother George’s surfboard. After a while we realised that Daddy was a speck in the distance! Mummy couldn’t leave 3 children alone on the beach and couldn’t speak much French either! Luckily a windsurfer was further out to sea and managed to pull Daddy back on the incoming tide where they both washed up further along the coast. We had a very celebratory supper that night!
The following three summers were spent on holiday in Cyprus. We stayed in the same apartment complex each year and the first two holidays took different cousins to help us. I spent a lot of time underwater in the pool there and being able to walk around in the water was fantastic. I made everyone laugh as I loved doing my maths workbooks, even on the beach! We didn’t have another surfboard incident but our giant inflatable ring did get washed out to see which made me very upset. A very kind person saw what happened and somehow managed to bring it back to us! On the last flight home I felt something dripping on my head which when it reached my mouth, tasted a bit like Fairy liquid but turned out to be a leaking bottle of champagne from the luggage locker above. Daddy was rather pleased to receive a complementary bottle as an apology from the airline!
The next abroad holiday was a few years later to Guernsey. The flights were more uncomfortable this time for my sister and me as we had both been wearing body braces since our last trip to Cyprus and sitting out of our wheelchairs was very unusual. We stayed in a bungalow near the beach and enjoyed visiting lots of interesting places. As we couldn’t take our Permobil wheelchairs on the plane, we took power packs which mounted onto our manual wheelchairs instead of the big wheels. This enabled Alexandra and I to be independent, but not as fast as we liked so we still had to be pushed on most of the outings. We had an early morning flight home and the air hostess came around with breakfast. She asked Daddy “Would you like Continental or English sir?” to which he replied “Yes please!”. This has now become a family joke!!
In the summer of 2001 we set off on a huge adventure…a Transatlantic voyage on the QE2 and then on to Cleveland, Ohio to visit friends. We couldn’t believe how kind and helpful everyone on board ship was, and every day there were things to do – our favourite was a Sound of Music singing morning! We sailed into New York at dawn and got up on deck in time to see the sun rising behind the skyscrapers in the distance, which looked enormous even from far away! I couldn’t believe we were actually looking at the real Statue of Liberty having seen her so many times in films! We had our breakfast still on board but in the dock watching the traffic outside, which felt very odd after 6 days looking at sea! We had booked a minibus taxi to take us to our hotel but the driver stopped at the wrong entrance so we had to come out rather terrifyingly, into the traffic on 7th Avenue (see 2nd photo!) The hotel staff were very welcoming and as soon as they saw our wheelchairs we were upgraded to an enormous suite on the 42nd floor! We switched on the television and were highly delighted to find that Teletubbies was on! Highlights from the three days spent in NYC included a trip up the Empire State Building, visiting a bookshop at 11.30pm and getting on a public bus with no issues about access. One of the days a very friendly lady stopped us in the middle of crossing a road to ask if Alexandra and I were twins and was so surprised when we told her there was 5 years between us! The next part of the adventure was taking an overnight Amtrak train to Cleveland. The journey took longer than expected as we had to wait for a few hours for some extra carriages with no power on the train. It got dark while we waited so Daddy and I went to bed in the specially adapted disabled compartment; Alexandra and Mummy were in another one further down the train. In the morning I was woken early by the train going over bumpy tracks so got up and watched Lake Eerie whizzing past. At Cleveland station the platform was a long way below the door but before we had time to worry, a portable electric lift had arrived! We spent 10 days exploring Cleveland with our friends being wonderful guides; everywhere we went we were welcomed access was so easy for wheelchairs. As the train journey had been so long, our friend very kindly offered to drive us back to NYC. This was a 10 hour journey but we were happy to see lots of American scenery on the way back. We fitted in a bit more sightseeing before sailing home again on the QE2 – we sailed out past the Twin Towers exactly a month before 9/11.
Our next trip abroad was in 2005 when we were lent a chalet in the French Alps. As flying there was too complicated, we set off in our van on a 4 day road trip, stopping after 3 hours each day and staying in Campanile motels seeing new towns each day. The final part of the drive was up a very windy mountain road which was very exciting. We arrived at the chalet and soon after us, our friends from Sidlesham (who had a flat nearby) arrived with the ramp they had custom built to fit the step into the main room. The views were spectacular and the weather got hotter and hotter as the week went on. Daddy and I had a fantastic ride up a mountain in a cable car, which my manual wheelchair fitted into perfectly. We had a delicious lunch at the café at the top before another stunning ride down, this time sharing with a couple who we discovered were from Chichester! Alexandra found that the high altitude and hot weather made her feel quite breathless and we found as we journeyed home again she soon recovered.
In the years between all our big holidays we have been to lots of different self-catering cottages and houses around England and Wales. A couple of times when I was a child we rented a caravan in the middle of a field of sheep! The loo was in a shed in the farmyard which was a huge thrill at bedtime! My parents always wanted to give Alexandra and me “normal” experiences and once pulled us backwards up a very bumpy field so we could see the view from the top. Alexandra wasn’t very amused by being thrown about on the way up but I think we were all happy we achieved it! As swimming was such an important part of our physio routine, we often looked for places with indoor heated pools. We found a lovely complex of farm cottages in Dorset where the pool was perfect with a jacuzzi too, but we also had one holiday in Wales where the pool was in a barn. The water was slightly green and not well heated so Daddy would carry me wrapped in a towel across the yard and back into a hot bath!
Two years ago I found out about the website Accomable (see page 6 of Travel & Tourism, Issue 1, 2018) and we booked a family holiday in Cornwall with George and his family. As it was a long drive we decided to stop overnight in Exeter and stayed in a Jury’s Inn. I highly recommend this chain! The rooms are really spacious and the beds are very comfortable! The restaurant is in the same building too which is much less stressful than going across a service-station car park! When we reached the bungalow we immediately said “we are coming back next year!” as it was huge, 100% accessible and had stunning views across the bay. In the five days we were there, we walked on the Costal Footpath and visited local beaches – some much better than others for my Permobil, and had a day trip to the Eden Project where all the paths were wide. In the disabled loo there was a button for visually impaired people and a voice gave a guided tour to show where the light, sink, loo, flush and hand-drier were! We were sad to leave last April, but tomorrow morning, we are setting off on our return visit, this time for seven nights! By the time you read this I will have come back and will probably be thinking about more travels and adventures!
If you go on an exciting holiday this summer, please write and tell me about it and your story will go in the next newsletter!
Lizzie Baily 2018
