Rolling Traveler

Keep Austin Weird is a slogan you’ll see all over Austin. It’s on postcards, in shop windows, and on bumper stickers, not to mention T-shirts, hoodies, caps, and mugs. I’d know idea what it meant when I first visited. To be honest, I thought it was marijuana-related, some kind of organized and visible support for legalization of the drug. To support my theory (which, given that some of the slogan-bearing products were on sale in the official campus store, was admittedly a bit of a stretch), the character on one of the postcards was smoking a hand-rolled cigarette… and the smell of it did waft from a couple of windows as I was rolling around the neighborhoods, and I did see a large group of people on the university steps passing around a pipe: it didn’t seem to be something anyone was hiding. However, Keep Austin Weird had nothing to do with marijuana, nor did it have any relationship to the city’s live music scene (my second guess). It has a far more down-to-Earth meaning, one that I would’ve guessed if I’d just read the fine print.

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I’d never fallen in love with a city until I visited Austin. I’d been there a day-and-a-half when I realized I wanted to move there, and even though I never did, the idea will always be in the back of my mind. I felt better there than I ever had in any other city, and I couldn’t imagine there was anything that would ever put me off being there. I’ve been back every year since, at least for a couple of days. This week, I’d like to share with you some of the reasons I love Austin.

What was it about the capital of Texas that so captured my affection? I am fond of other cities, but Austin is one of the only cities I really love. I have a few very good friends there, but that’s not the only reason. The city itself held fascination for me. I spent hours exploring it while my friends were at work, going into stores, wandering down by the river, meandering through the parks, and eating at small local restaurants. Everything was new, and I’m sure I bored everyone terribly in the evenings: I know that no-one could understand my saying how much I liked the grackles, as most long-term residents seem to loathe them like Europeans hate pigeons.

The thing I enjoyed most about Austin was the feeling of independence. I had traveled with the wheelchair before, through Poland, Germany, England and Ireland, but I’d always encountered enough barriers that I felt that I’d never travel independently. Austin was the first city I’d visited and felt that I could go anywhere I wanted alone. The buses had lifts, and the bus network covered all the parts of the city I wanted to get to. The stores were all accessible, the sidewalks all had curb cuts. I felt free and able to go anywhere, and I’d never felt like that before.

I will probably never actually do more than visit Austin. I’m sure the daily reality of living there would be very different to being an exploring tourist. I’ve never been there during the summer, only in the mild and pleasant winter months, and I don’t know if I could stand the heat of the Texan summer. More importantly, I’ve no desire to leave Europe and live in the US. Austin is just my dream city, an ideal born of a sense of not having any barriers to my movement for the first time in years.

I’m in Amsterdam for the weekend for my friends’ wedding. As I’ve mentioned before, Amsterdam is just a short train ride away from Dusseldorf, so it is possible to go and come back in one day, but since my friends are here from San Francisco and I get few chances to see them in the year, I decided to stay two nights. There were a couple of minor hiccups along the way with the train and hotel, but nothing’s spoiling this trip: I’m determined of that.

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If you ever make it to Wroclaw, the administrative capital of Lower Silesia in Poland, make sure you keep an eye out for dwarfs when you’re sight-seeing in the city center. There are currently over 50 small statues of dwarfs scattered around the old town, each engaged in his own hobby, each representing a different aspect of the city or of Polish life and history. It’s quite a feat to find them all, but it can be done, even in a wheelchair. Actually, it may be even easier for a wheelchair user, cobblestoned streets notwithstanding - we’re used to keeping our eyes on the ground looking out for obstacles and other problems, so we’re more likely to spot these little guys. They are worth keeping an eye out, not only for the art and amusement of them, but also for the aspect of Polish history that inspired them.

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Hanover may not be one of Europe’s premiere holiday destinations, but the city has considered how to best present what it can offer visitors. One interesting thing they’ve created is the Red Thread. Starting and finishing at the Tourist Information Office in the plaza in front of the main railway station, you follow a red line painted on the ground, passing most of the places of historical and architectural interest in the city. There’s a map and booklet available, with all the details and stories you could want when visiting a city. It takes between two and three hours in a manual chair, and around two hours in a powerchair. The outdoor part of the trail is wheelchair accessible, although not everything is wheelchair friendly. Some of the buildings along the way don’t have access because to add ramps or lifts would affect their historical integrity, and the old part of the city is cobblestoned, although not in as challenging a way as Cologne or Wroclaw.

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Where do you go when you need to recharge? Although I mainly travel for work and to learn, and to meet old friends and make new ones, I also travel so that I can switch off and regain my equilibrium. For me to really feel rested, my destination needs to be wheelchair friendly, so I can focus on me, and not on the difficulties and obstacles around me, but it also needs to have somewhere green and spacious like a large park or garden. It’s not quite the mountains and woods I used to enjoy, but it’s somewhat close to nature.

Although I often go there to work, Hanover is one of my favorite destinations when I need to rest and recharge. Continue Reading »