Grand Celtic Tour 2015, part 3

It is nice and sunny when we arrive in Cairnryan, so we have a lovely drive to Dumfries, where we will be staying a few days. Of course there is a lot of traffic from the ferry going the same way, so the road is busy.

View over Loch Ryan

Accommodation

Originally I had booked a room in a b&b. Two weeks before we left home I got an email that it had closed with immediate effect and that our reservation had been cancelled. Not ideal when you need wheelchair accessible accommodation. Fortunately, the Premier Inn in Dumfries still had a room available at the time of the email, so that is where we were going to stay. We arrive at the hotel around four. When checking inn I find out that our room is almost at the other end of the hotel, through a long narrow corridor with many doors. Not ideal if you are pushing a wheelchair or when you have to carry many bags from the car to your room! And of course as a carer you have more luggage than other people on holiday. When I mention this the receptionist opens a fire door closer to our room, so I can bring the luggage in.

The room is nice and big, with plenty of room around the bed.  Not a lot of room for clothes, so we have to live out of the suitcase for a few days. The bathroom is quite big too, so enough room to manoeuvre, if it wasn’t for the fact that the washbasin was right next to the toilet. This means that every time I help J with the transfer from wheelchair to toilet I have to be careful that I don’t open the tap and get my trousers wet! I guess it is useful for other people to be able to wash their hands whilst sitting on the toilet…..

The first night and the next morning we have our meal in the restaurant next to the hotel. The food is quite nice, but we don’t want such a big breakfast every day. I guess there are quite a lot of people with blue badges coming to eat in the restaurant because most evenings when we return to the hotel all the disabled parking spots are occupied.

Enjoying the countryside

As before, we spend quite some time over the next three days driving around the countryside. We see most of the coast from Port Logan to the mouth of the River Nith. High points are the view at the Mull of Galloway, the Isle of Whithorn and village of Kirkcudbright.

At the Mull of Galloway there are ample disabled parking bays from where you are able to enjoy the view, and you are also allowed to drive on to the visitor centre, which unfortunately is already closed by the time we get there. The weather is reasonably clear so the Isle of Man is clearly visible, and we can even see the Mountains of Mourne, despite thunder storms coming our way from that direction.

There are also plenty of disabled parking bays on the quayside in the Isle of Whithorn, although we didn’t get out of the car. In Kirkcudbright we stop for coffee and also have a quick walk around. We saw quite a few castles and abbeys during our drives, but the only castle we actually visit is Caerlaverock. There are no special disabled parking facilities but there is plenty of room. It is possible to get inside the castle into the courtyard but you have to get down a very steep slope. I manage to get the wheelchair down, but find someone to help me up the slope when we want to leave. J enjoyed his visit very much so it was worth the effort.

We also have a lovely drive past New Galloway to the Galloway Forest Park. We stop at the Clatteringshaws Visitor Centre, where I walk to one of the many Bruce’s stones. As it just started to drizzle J decides to have a snooze rather than getting out of the car. There are (free) disabled parking bays available in the car park. It would have been possible to take the wheelchair on the path along the lake, and into the visitor centre which has disabled facilities.

Gardens

We manage to squeeze in four gardens in the few days we are in Galloway and Dumfries. The first is the Newtonairds Hosta Garden, just outside Dumfries. We arrive late in the afternoon, but this means the owners have plenty of time for us. This is a private garden, so no parking facilities, but plenty of room on the road. The garden is a delight. Part of it is on the slope under trees, which is where most of the hostas grow. This is a bit difficult to do with the wheelchair, but you can see a lot of it from the bottom of the slope. There is a more or less flat grass path in the valley at the bottom of the slope and a lovely patio area surrounded by Clematis and climbing roses. The owner brings us a pot of tea which we enjoy in the sun on the patio. Although the garden is officially closed by then they let us sit there as long as we like, as they are enjoying the lovely weather themselves. One of the outhouses has a shop with knickknacks, and a regular toilet, but no disabled facilities.

There are disabled facilities at Logan Botanical Gardens, but they are tiny, so a lot of improvisational talent needed on my part when J needs the toilet. Most paths around the garden are reasonably accessible, although we avoid the Woodland area in the Southern half of the garden which is more on a slope. It is gorgeous and sunny when we arrive, so we enjoy our lunch outside in the sun. Suddenly the clouds come over and we even have a short drizzly shower, but not enough to stop us enjoying the garden, we just seek shelter in the greenhouse.

At Glenwhan Gardens there is a very steep ramp to get from the parking to the entrance and the tearoom. There are some signs indicating there is a wheelchair accessible trail around the garden, but it is not marked on the map, and sometimes it is very difficult to see where you have to go, so I leave J at the lakeside from where he has lovely views of the garden.

The last gardens we visit are Threave Gardens, the gardens where National Trust for Scotland trains its gardeners. The paths are wide enough and tarmac, so easy enough if it wasn’t for the slope. First quite steep down from the entrance towards the walled garden, and then again quite steep up towards the house. As it have been a few very busy days John chooses a quiet spot in the sun near the walled garden to rest a bit, while I run around the rest of the garden. Fortunately someone offers me a hand (again) to get the wheelchair back up the hill to the visitor centre. We could have used the viewing platform at the visitor centre, but chose not to. There are disabled facilities in the visitor centre too, but we haven’t tried them on this visit.

The last leg

All too soon it is time to set off on the last leg of our trip. Fortunately there is still time on the way to make a few stops and see a few things on the way. John sleeps through the visit to the Ruthwell cross, but it would have been possible to get the wheelchair into the church to see it. He does wake up for the lunch break at Gretna Green. We couldn’t pass it without visiting the old Blacksmith’s. The museum is wheelchair accessible and so are the shops and the restaurants. There are plenty of facilities too. However, it is starting to get very warm, so we are glad to get back into the car, with the air conditioning.

The road to the ferry brings us back on the road along Hadrian’s wall which we visited a few years ago, so happy memories. Because of traffic jams on the road we get to North Shields on time, but later than we would have liked and get told off by the receptionist checking us in for the ferry. She tells us she now can’t guarantee us a place by the lifts, as they have already started boarding. I tell her that I couldn’t risk having to be in a queue in the sun for hours at temperatures above 25 degrees with an elderly vulnerable person, and that my experience from several previous crossings was that they started boarding much later. Also that it wasn’t my fault that our queue had progressed much slower than other queues because they had a trainee receptionist doing the checking in. After checking in a thunder storm breaks with a deluge of rain, most of it while we are in with border control, and when we come out on the other side the temperature has dropped almost 10 degrees! In the end everything turns out okay, we still get our place near the lift on the ferry. The DFDS ferry is the one that we have used most often, as it is usually the most convenient for our crossings. So from previous experience I know that it is easier to take a disabled cabin with sea view as they are fractionally larger and the set up of the cabin gives us a little more room for the transfers. The bathroom is as always on the ferries: difficult to get in and out of. I also notice that the socket to plug in a razor is in an illogical place for a disabled cabin……

We also like the sailing times, leaving late in the afternoon, arriving after breakfast. On top of that it gives us a chance to end our holiday with a nice dinner in the buffet restaurant of the ferry. We have booked a later sitting at 6.30 rather than 6 o’clock, giving me time to pop onto the sun deck to see the ferry sail off the Tyne to sea. By this time the thunder storm has well and truely passed, it is nice weather with a little sunshine.

After dinner we spend some time in the bar, drinking coffee and listening to the music before we go to bed. The next morning we just have coffee and croissants in the bar, rather than a full breakfast. The purser giving us assistance refuses to listen to me that he wants to take the wrong lift going back to the car so we have to travel quite a long way before retracing our steps and doing it my way. Fortunately we still get to the car on time (after he has had to ‘throw’ other passengers out of the lift), giving me enough time to get everything in the car before disembarkation. The temperature is soaring already when we get off the ferry and drive the last bit of our trip back home. Being well rested helps in getting through the heatwave that follows….. and it gives me a good excuse to stay indoors and sort through all the photographs.

Isle of Whithorn

MacLellan’s castle at Kirkcudbright

Dundrennan Abbey

Grand Celtic Tour 2015, part 2

Crossing

In Roscoff we boarded a ferry of Brittany Ferries. They sail once a week from Roscoff to Cork. Sailing times depend on the time of high tide, as we found out. We arrived at the harbour around 6 in the evening. We were supposed to sail around 10 o’clock but left about an hour later.

Breton coast from the ferry deck

As usual with ferry companies we get into a special queue to board so they can make sure we get a spot on the car deck close to the lift and with enough room around the car to get the wheelchair out. With past experience I have requested purser assistance with the luggage which makes it easier to get to the cabin. Even with only overnight bags we have quite a bit of luggage to take on and off board because of all the aids I need for J.

The cabin has portholes which give daylight, but there is a deck in front of it, so it is a bit strange to see people walking past your windows. The cabin has two berths, one on the side wall and one on the outer wall, so both can be easily reached with the wheelchair. The cabin is small, but just big enough (see video). As usual it is a bit difficult to get the wheelchair in the bathroom because there are always high threshholds. I have to think where we are going before I get the wheelchair in the bathroom as I have to go in backwards if J needs the washbasin and straight if he needs the toilet. However, I can get the wheelchair in, get J on the toilet, there are grabrails so he feels safe and he can wash and shave himself. You don’t need more for the one night. In this case the biggest problem in the bathroom is J himself, or rather his acquired brain damage. In the morning he puts the plug in the washbasin to wash his face, then he can’t figure out how to unplug it and he leaves the tap running. Result: wet trousers and a wet wheelchair. Of course I didn’t have a dry pair of trousers in the overnight bag and once we get back to the car I don’t have a chance of changing his trousers.

After we have inspected the cabin we find somewhere to have a drink and then enjoy the evening sun on deck, hoping to see the ship leaving port. However, because we leave later then expected, the sun is going down and it starts getting too cold for John. In the end it is already dark by the time we set off. So even in the restaurant where we have found a table close enough to the windows we can’t see how we leave France behind us.

The crossing takes all night, so a chance of a reasonable night sleep, if it wasn’t for J not being comfortable and waking me up every hour. The next morning we have breakfast in the self-service restaurant. As it is quite full on the ferry it is a bit difficult to find a suitable table that we can reach with the wheelchair. After that I have to go from queue to queue twice (once for his breakfast and then again for my own as I can’t carry the two of them at the same time). Unfortunately there is no map of the crossing available so it is difficult to understand where we are when we actually see land. We arrive round 10.30 am.

Disembarkation is swift and soon we are driving from Ringaskiddy towards Cork, and then on the Motorway north towards Dublin. At first the roads are reasonably quiet and driving is swift. Although the views are beautiful J is soon fast asleep. I follow the signs to a coffee shop just off the Motorway somewhere on the way and then continue north. Round Dublin it is much busier. In Drogheda I leave the Motorway again to get some petrol. There don’t seem to be many serviceareas on the Motorway in Ireland. Lured by the roadsigns in Drogheda we make a little detour to the Battle of the Boyne Visitorcentre to see if it is wheelchairaccessible. Although we intend to come back, we never make it during this holiday. We continue to the north and cross the border to Northern Ireland. First we continue on the Motorway towards Belfast, but after a while we travel cross country towards Ballynahinch.

Accommodation

We have found a holiday cottage called Hemp Cottage just outside Crossgar. We chose the area because it is reasonably close to friends that we want to visit. However, there seems to be not a lot to chose from yet in Northern Ireland if you are looking for accessible accommodation, so you have to make allowances. The cottage is in the back garden of the owners, Rachel and Tom, both architects. Its situation is idyllic, next to a bridge over a brook, and nice and quiet. You do need a car to get to the village to be able to do some shopping, though.

To get into the cottage you have to go through the grass to get to the ramp up to the decking around the house. The front door into the hallway is nice and wide. However there is a very thick mat behind the door which makes pushing a wheelchair in cumbersome. From the hall there are four doors, two into the bedrooms, one into the bathroom and one to the main room. The main room is very nice. Open to the roof which gives a roomy feel, with a sitting area, dining area and kitchen area. I have to move one of the sofas to create room for the wheelchair. The dining table is a bit more difficult. J can only sit at the head of the table and then he is right up against the stones under the wood-fire. The kitchen is very nice and very well equipped. In the bathroom there is a walk in shower, but with a glass wall to one side which makes manoeuvring the wheelchair a bit cumbersome. There are no grab-rails by the toilet. On the whole it would have been easier if the bathroom had been half a meter wider. Saying that, we knew this before we came and I could manage. The larger bedroom has just enough room next to the bed for the wheelchair, but that doesn’t leave a lot of room on the other side of the bed for me to get in and out. Yet again, it would have been more comfortable if the room had been half a meter wider. The second bedroom has bunk-beds. Good if you bring children, maybe not really suitable for adults. For us it is a useful place to store the luggage. Rachel and Tom are very friendly and welcoming. We are free to use some of the veg from the veg plot and there is plenty of wood for the wood-fire. As it can be cold during the night the wood-fire is very pleasant to quickly heat up the cottage. In the afternoon it can be nice and warm especially on the terrace. There are doors opening from the living room to the terrace.

Crossgar is a friendly village. During our stay I find out there are not only local grocery shops but also two little supermarkets with the petrol stations. Not that we have to do a lot of shopping, as we keep getting invited for dinner at our friends house and they keep supplying us with food too.

Enjoying the countryside

As usual, we enjoy driving around the countryside, getting to know the country and driving past local places of interest even if we can’t visit them all. In the beautiful weather that we have you quite often have a lovely view of the Mountains of Mourne to the south. So of course we go for a drive through the mountains too. To get there we follow the coastal road with lovely views over the Irish Sea, lovely little villages with the odd castle here and there and lovely views of the ‘Mountains of Mourne sweeping down to the sea’. We visit Silent Valley and after a while find how we can drive to the dam so J can actually see it as well. It is quite far to walk there all the way from the parking. I think it might be possible to go for a walk with someone in an electric wheelchair or a mobility scooter in the area.

Another day we go for lunch by the sea in Newcastle. There are plenty of disabled parking facilities. The promenade allows for a nice walk along the shore. It is sunny so we can sit outside for lunch. If I remember correctly I saw signs to wheelchair accessible toilets, but we didn’t use them. Afterwards we follow another part of the coastal road and visit some of the buildings associated with Saint Patrick. There is a good path going down from the parking area to Inch Abbey. From the end of the path you can see most of the ruins and the nice view towards Downpatrick, but to get into the ruins you have to go over grass and the ground isn’t too even.

The last long roadtrip along the coast is the Causeway Coastal Road which we follow all the way from Belfast to the Giant Causeway. The views along this Coastal Road are magnificent all the way, changing all the time. Stopping off several times makes it quite late by the time we actually get to the Giant Causeway, but of course we are going to visit it. The parking attendants show us the way to the disabled parking area close to the visitor centre. At first I am optimistic about the path down to the Causeway itself but I soon accept that I can’t walk it with the wheelchair, so we take the shuttle bus, which has a ramp into the bus and one place for a wheelchair. On the way down the driver lets us in first so I can make sure I am sitting next to the wheelchair to keep it steady. On the way up I am not so lucky and the Chinese sitting on the spot where I should sit refuse to understand me. The wheelchair almost topples over in one of the bends. Still, we are very glad we went down to see the Causeway. Not that we can walk over the stones, but you get a very good impression from the side. We finish off with a cup of tea in the visitor centre. We do use the toilets here and I experience a ‘Changing Places‘ toilet for the first time. The amount of room is a revalation.

Other attractions

We visit quite a few places while we are here. To begin with (and not the least) the Titanic Experience in Belfast. As it is a very new museum they have ample facilities for wheelchairs. The staff are brilliant too, even if it turns out to be more difficult than expected to get J’s wheelchair on the big ride and the queue behind us grows. Even if he is squashed into the ride a bit he enjoys it tremendously, as he does the rest of the museum.

We also have a very good time at the Ulster Folk and Transport Museum. We visit the Transport bit first. Good ramps through the museum, and once we are all the way down I am allowed to get the car at the top and pick J up at the bottom. There is so much to see that we only visit the exhibition about Irish Dance at the Folk museum and leave the rest.

The third and last museum we visit is the Down County museum in Downpatrick where we get a personal tour as our friend used to work there. The accessibility is reasonable. The funny thing in the museum is some Dutch tourists complaining in a loud voice that they have to wait because we take up the whole lift with the wheelchair. So nice to reply in Dutch ……… After visiting the museum I get some exercise pushing J up the hill to visit Downpatrick cathedral.

Gardens

As in the first part of the holiday I cannot resist visiting some gardens while we are here, and J comes along to most of them. The first is Glenarm Castle Walled Garden, where we stop for lunch on our way to the Giant’s Causeway. We know we don’t have a lot of time for this visit, so we leave J just outside the tearoom. We would have had to cross a bit of gravel, but the rest of the paths are grass, but a bit on a slope, so it would have been possible to push the wheelchair around. After our visit a table with enough room for the wheelchair has been cleared for us in the tearoom. There are toilets, but I am not completely sure they would have been big enough.

We also visit a small garden opened for the Ulster Open Gardens Scheme. The owner kindly lets us pass through his living room so J can also see the back garden. This being a private garden it is not especially well designed for visiting wheelchairs, but J enjoys it anyway.

The next garden we visit is much larger, Mount Stewart. The National Trust have special facilities like a special disabled entrance into the gardens. Of course it is difficult to get everywhere in the garden with the wheelchair. Sometimes paths are just not wide enough, or too steep, or gravel, or there are steps, but usually there is a way around, or J just waits until I have seen what I want to see. We just stay close to the house, and visit the ground floor of the house, the park would have been too much. Lunch in the tearoom is lovely, and afterwards we drive all the way around Strangford Lough and take the ferry at Portaferry to Strangford. The crossing only takes 15 minutes or so, so it isn’t worth it to get the wheelchair out of the car. Wouldn’t have been possible either.

When we visit Seaforde Gardens and Butterfly house it is drizzling a bit, so I leave J in the Butterfly house and don’t take him into the garden. That would have been possible, although pushing over the gravel paths might have been heavy. The path through the butterfly house is just wide enough and J really enjoys watching all the butterflies flying around and even landing on him.

The last garden we visit is Rowallane, also a National Trust property, close to Crossgar. It is a lovely sunny day, so it would have been enough to sit outside and drink tea, but we also walk around the walled garden. Very enjoyable even if we have to retrace our steps because only one entrance is accessible. There are disabled toilets, but they are not very big.

Moving on

Far too soon for our liking the two weeks in Northern Ireland have passed. We end with a lovely dinner with our friends in a local pub and the next day we have to drive to the next ferryport. This time it is in Belfast. The ferry goes to Cairnryan in Scotland. As usual we are in a separate queue, get enough room to get out of the car. As it is a short crossing we do not need any luggage from the car. It is possible to take the wheelchair out on a deck, but J choses to watch the scenery of Belfast lough from the comfort of the cafeteria. We have a nice lunch and enough time to use the facilities. Just before we arrive in Scotland a lady from the information desk accompanies us to the car deck so we have enough time to get back in the car.

View of Belfast Lough from ferry deck

Grand Celtic Tour 2015, part 1

This year we were quite adventurous with our holiday, visiting a lot of new places, in different countries, all with a Celtic connection. As this means I have a lot to describe, it will come out as a serial.

En route

Brittany is the first of the regions we are going to visit. It is just a little bit too far to drive there in one day, so we are stopping the first night in the familiar B&B hotel in Rouen (see previous item). This means we have enough to start the holiday properly on our way down by visiting one of the cities we usually pass by: Amiens. We park behind the cathedral. The two disabled parking spots are blocked by three parked cars. So I park in the middle of the street to get J out into the wheelchair, and then park in a regular spot. Fortunately the blue badge still gives us the right to free parking. We walk around the cathedral to find the main entrance, which isn’t accessible, and to find a place to eat. When I find a restaurant, it doesn’t look accessible, from the bar to the eating area are two steps up. But when I ask if there is another entrance for wheelchairusers, the barman invites us in, saying: no worries I will help you. And true to his word, he pulls the chair up the steps. After the nice lunch he helps us down the steps again.

Front of the cathedral

Then I try to follow the wheelchair-signs on the cathedral to find the accessible entrance. Fortunately someone else is looking too, and between us we find the ramp between two bits of scaffolding. The search was well worth it! This is an amazing building, with beautiful stonework. We spend so much time in the cathedral that afterwards we go back to the car, without walking around in the city centre.

The next day we continue our way towards Brittany on the motorway, but after lunch at our regular place on the Bay of Mont St Michel we continue along the coastal road for more sightseeing and a relaxed trip. We don’t go all the way to Cap Frehel, because we don’t want to pay for the parking, but enjoy the view it bit further down the coast.

After Saint-Brieuc we leave the coast and drive to our accommodation in the Trégor-region of the Côtes-d’Armor, the only region in Brittany that we haven’t visited before.

Accommodation

We have booked an apartment at I Need a Holiday Too (INAHT), in a former flax mill on the river Jaudy at La-Roche-Derrien. INAHT has been set up by a British couple, Jacqui and Carl, to be catering for disabled people and their carers. There are three larger and three smaller apartments on three flours. All are accessible, and there is a lift to get to the upper floors. Unfortunately our SatNav doesn’t recognize the address, but with some help we finally find the building. Coming through the gate from the road there is plenty of parking. I find Carl and son Max in the barn, which they are doing up to become a workshop with a new apartment for the family on the top floor. They help us with the luggage and show us to our apartment, which is on the first floor of the former mill.
We have one of the smaller apartments, with two bedrooms, but it is plenty of room for just the two of us. The larger bedroom has plenty of room to manoeuvre with the wheelchair and has a profiling bed in it. Next to it is a large bathroom/wetroom. If there is one point of criticism it is that you have to get to the door at an exact right angle to get through it with the wheelchair, and the door doesn’t stay open by itself. But there is plenty of room, even with a showerchair in it. The toilet is at the right height, with grabrails, and the washbasin is easily reached from the wheelchair.

Both rooms open to the open plan living room/kitchen with dining area. The kitchen is small but functional, as most guests mainly use the kitchen for smaller meals and dine out. As usual it takes a little while to figure out how it will function best for us, but it is very comfortable. On the other side of the living room next to the front door is the second double bedroom. However, this is not accessible for the wheelchair. It does nicely for me though, so I can have a few quieter nights.

Behind the building and next to the barn is a nice (communal) patio area overlooking the garden and the river. It is a little bit too far from our apartment for our wireless doorbell-alarmsystem to work, but if I leave the receiver by the front door of the mill I can still hear it if J needs me. If he is up J can even manage to get to the patio from the apartment on his own, although the ramp at the door and the camber from the door to the patio make it a bit difficult for him.

The garden is on the slope beneath the barn towards the river. There is a path going down to the river, which is doable in the wheelchair. Chickens and a pig live in the garden, which means there is somewhere to dump your kitchen waste, and sometimes there are fresh eggs for breakfast.

The building is situated at the edge of the little town and is not far from the centre. However, the road into town is steep uphill. That is okay if you have an electric wheelchair, not if you have to push one up the hill, or worse, back downhill.

Activities

During our stay at INAHT Jacqui organised several activities. One night there was a barbecue. The day had been nice and the evening started okay, unfortunately it became overcast with a threat of rain so we ate the abundance of food indoors. It was still a pleasant evening.

On a saturday afternoon we took part in a workshop candle making which was organized in the crafts shop in town. Most participants were local so the workshop was in French, but with translations if necessary. The shop is not big, but the workspace was easily reached from the wheelchair. The toilet is not accessible, but it is not far from INAHT. We went home with three different candles each. One a gel-candle with a composition of sand, shells and stones, one a scented candle with a scent of our choice, and one candle from a mould that we got to decorate. J found out that decorating is not so easy if you can only use one hand. A very enjoyable afternoon.

 

Every bit as enjoyable was the macaroon-making workshop at INAHT. A local baking lady came to explain us how to make them and we made some ourselves in different colours and with different fillings. The result was split between all the participants. Because the taste improves if you leave them to set for at least one day we sampled some that our teacher made the day before. J decided just to watch us making the delicious macarons, but he wouldn’t say no to tasting them!

 

Excursions

While we were there we visited some of the towns in the neighbourhood and of course we went on drives along the gorgeous coast.

Tréguier cathedral

We visited Treguier, the capital of the region, on market day. Of course the most obvious disabled parking spot is on the market square, so that wasn’t available. However we found one not too far from the square. The town is on a hill, so visiting involved quite a bit of pushing, trying to avoid the worst of the cobbles. The market this early in the season was not very big, but still quite nice. I managed to buy a lot of fresh fruit for little money. Enough to make our early morning smoothies for a week.

The Jaudy at Tréguier

We walked around the cathedral, but didn’t go into the museum part because the museum was about to close for lunch, and after lunch we never went back. We had a lovely lunch at a crêperie on the square, sitting outside in the sun. Later I found out there was even a wheelchair accessible toilet inside! After lunch we walked around the historical centre until we reached the car, and then drove on to the harbour on the riverside.

The day we visited Paimpol, a very nice little fishing-town, it was quite windy, so not inducive to a longer walk around As before, this town is also on a hill and the centre is cobbled, so hard work if you have to push someone around. Lovely town, though. We found a restaurant on the harbour for lunch after which we visited the abbey ruins of the Abbaye de Beauport just outside the town on the coast. The abbey is partly accessible. Sometimes I had to find a place out of the wind to let J enjoy the sun while I was running around taking photographs. There is a large park around the abbey with long walks, but we left that for another visit.

During our drives spread out over several days we managed to see most of the coast between Paimpol and Trégastel. The coast is absolutely gorgeous and changes all the time, so I had to keep stopping the car to be able to take a few photographs of the views. At some places I took J out of the car too to have a bit of a walk around. It looks like there are several places where you could actually get on the beach with the wheelchair, or get a special beach wheelchair. The closest we got to the beach was the quayside at the Pointe du Chateau at Perros-Guirec and on the coastal path at Ploumanac’h where we had lovely icecream. The crèpes at Le Trestrignel were quite good too!

Gardens

In this area of Brittany there are a lot of gardens to visit. Probably the warm gulfstream again. As I like visiting gardens I planned some visits. Unfortunately it turned out that most gardens are not really wheelchair-accessible, especially if you don’t have an electric wheelchair.

 

The first garden I visited was Les Jardins de Kerfouler, to the south-east from INAHT. These gardens are relatively new, and have only been open to the public since 2014. They were started by a garden designer to show what kind of gardens are possible in this area, and therefore consist of several garden rooms. The terrace in front of the tearoom and a few garden rooms closer to the house are accessible but further down the paths are too narrow. Fortunately J doesn’t mind waiting for me as long as I find him a nice spot in the sun. The owner gave him a photo album so he could get a good impression. I was amazed at the amount of French speaking visitors in this garden.

 

 

Afterwards we went to the Château de la Roche-Jagu. Close to the parking-lot we had to cross a cobbled path, but the rest of the path to the Chateau was reasonably accessible. The gardens on the plateau around the Chateau are doable too, as is the viewing area over the river. However, a large part of the park are on a steep slope which we didn’t even attempt. Fortunately there was still enough to see.

Steep banks full of exotic plants

Another day we went to the Jardin Exotique du Kestellic, on the banks of the Jaudy, just north of Tréguier. There it was already difficult to get the wheelchair to the entrance. Once there I was told that it was not really possible to take a wheelchair inside. So I had to leave J somewhere without a view, which prompted me into a flying visit. The gardens are true to their name, full of exotic plants, and with lots of trees. The banks of the river are very steep so it is amazing what they achieved in this garden. I wouldn’t like to garden here, and I was quite glad not having tohandle the wheelchair on this slope. It was difficult enough for me to handle on my own!

The next garden on the list was Les Jardins the Kerdalo, on the other side of the river, but once I got to the parking area it looked like a steep road down to the entrance again so I gave up, not wanting to leave J in the car.

Moving on

Onion Johnny museum

Of course we can stay in Brittany forever, but for this holiday it was time to move on. It was drizzling the whole morning, so by the time I managed packing everything into the car I was quite wet. J was the last ‘thing’ to get into the car so he was still dry, but doesn’t mind if I turn up the heating in the car. Carl and Max and the animals waved us off. We drove to Lannion and then picked up the coastal road west again. The further west we got, the more the weather cleared up again, and by the time we got to Roscoff it was nice again. Nice enough for a walk round. We found a restaurant where we could have an early dinner. After dinner we drove to the ferryport to board a ferry to part two of our tour.

Roscoff ferryport