Jul
31
2008
My top pick for a place to eat in Barcelona is MamaCafé Restaurant, which rates an Excellent for great food, value for money and atmosphere, and a Very Good for wheelchair accessibility.
Finding a really good restaurant in a popular tourist destination can be a tricky task, especially if you don’t know anyone who lives there, so we must have had a lot of luck on our side when we stumbled upon the restaurant that I want to recommend to you today. MamaCafé Restaurant is not on a busy street or in the heart of a popular tourist area, but it is well worth going off the beaten track for. It lies in a neighborhood called Raval, to the right of La Rambla if you are heading away from Placa Catalunya. The web site includes an accurate map.
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Jul
30
2008
It seems I can’t have a trip to southern Europe without encountering a male cab driver with an unstoppable desire to share with me his deep and personal feelings on the subject of women. This trip to Barcelona was no exception. I wonder if a lady cab driver would talk to me about men’s bums if I were a female passenger: can any of the ladies reading enlighten me on this subject?
This post does contain quotes from the cab driver, which could cause offence to some. It is not strong language, but I felt it best to give a quick warning so people could stop now if they’d rather not hear what I did.
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Jul
29
2008
There are few things I enjoy more than going somewhere I’ve never been in the company of a good friend, and just taking our time to explore and soak up the atmosphere. It’s an adventure: we might love the place, we might find nothing to our taste, but travel is always a worthwhile gamble. Of course, with the wheelchair, such a trip can’t be completely unplanned, and there have been times when even with planning, some of the locations I’ve been looking forward to seeing have proven too inaccessible to appreciate. This weekend, my good friend Lanny and I went to Barcelona, and I am happy to report that we both enjoyed it immensely, and had no difficulties getting around with the wheelchair. Barcelona is a beautiful city and an excellent holiday destination, and I rate it highly wheelchair friendly.
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Jul
25
2008
The German airline Lufthansa is going to be hit by a second, much larger strike starting this Sunday (July 27th) at 10 PM. An overwhelming majority of members of the trade union ver.di, which represents 50,000 of Lufthansa’s ground and cabin crew, voted in favor of the industrial action. The exact details of the action have not been announced, and it is an open-ended strike. While Lufthansa has stated that they have plans in place that will allow most of their flights to go ahead, there are bound to be many disruptions. Continue Reading »
Jul
24
2008
As I said on Tuesday, it is important to let the airline know in advance that you are traveling with a wheelchair, or indeed with an infant, with an assistance dog, or with any other special circumstance. If you’ve never had to do this, you might assume that you can just check a box on the airline’s web site as you’re doing your booking. However, this is not the case; as a rule, you have to call the airline and have them attach a note to your booking. There are a few pieces of information that you will need, and today I’d like to detail these.
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Jul
23
2008
If you have any flights booked with Germany’s Lufthansa, keep your eye on the news over the coming weeks, as the airline is having to cancel flights due to industrial action. Pilots for the Lufthansa subsidiaries Eurowings and CityLines went on strike on Tuesday, and will stay out until midnight today, forcing the airline to cancel around a thousand domestic and short-haul flights. Long-haul flights were not affected this week, but there is still a threat of further and larger walk-outs: Friday will bring the results of a strike ballot being held by a second union Continue Reading »
Jul
22
2008
It may seem obvious, but it still bears repeating: when you are traveling with a wheelchair, or indeed with any of the extra issues I mentioned yesterday, let the airline, rail carrier or coach company know in advance. You would be surprised how many people don’t, and while it is rare that this leads to them missing their flight or train, it can happen.
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Jul
21
2008
Welcome to Rolling Traveler @ Today. My name is Derek Handley, and I am very grateful to Today.com for giving me the opportunity to share my travel experiences with a wider audience. I have some stories to tell and some advice to give, and I hope to be both amusing and useful, and perhaps even sometimes thought-provoking in the process. This is not going to be a travel diary or an online photo album: my aim is to build this blog into a resource for those travelers and tourists who, like myself, have to consider one extra issue when they are planning a trip.
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