We Do Our Own Stunts...Mostly
At the end
of April, our family of four traveled with very dear friends to Germany to spend the week with Geoff’s sister and brother-in-law, who had lived there for three years. While Allison and Brian are not actual travel agents, they pretended to be and planned an incredible eight-day journey weaving multiple cities, trains, subways, and trolleys, carefully considering accessibility everywhere we went. At almost 12 and 13, our kids reveled in finding new foods and also wondered about urban situations like visible drug deals, homeless folks, and the mental health crisis, which cross all borders. We found the German people to be both direct and kind, many times offering up help in English when we struggled.
There were some places we wanted to get to, like castles, rose gardens, subways with elusive elevators, and, of course, beer gardens with a view, which required some sketchy stunt performances leaving passersby in surprise. But we are seasoned professionals and take on the “sketchy wheelchair crap” with gusto. For example, we were able to access Frankfurt, Bamberg, Nuremberg, Heidelberg, and Munich with our Eurorail passes, and Allison reserved assistance for getting on and off the trains. But with the more regional trains, the elevators were often very far from the stairs or escalators, which meant it was difficult to stay together at all times. We take total pride and responsibility for not losing a child or adult from our crew in our eight days of travel. But, we have to manage some escalator maneuvers, which our friend Matt has done countless times before with Geoff.
There was a palace in Nuremberg we wanted to check out due to the famous rose garden within its walls, but first, we had to climb within its walls. We discovered a set of stairs that had a “kind of ramp,” albeit a very steep one, probably used only for dollies and deliveries, which we used to access the rose garden. This was more difficult to juggle, and we were sweating profusely afterward, but the view of the city and the palace rose garden, even a not yet blooming rose garden, was worth the climb.
At one point, Geoff had to employ a carabiner and strap to assist in coming down the cobblestones from the castle he explored with Allison and Brian, while the rest of us were sort of “castled out” if there ever was such a phrase. From the photos, it appears Allison has Geoff on a very short leash for speed control. But the road down was so steep; they feared he could be a runaway wheelie. And with the Free Wheel, who knows how far or fast he would have gone before crashing.
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The Free Wheel was a real game changer for our family probably a decade ago and invaluable in Germany, where 96% of the roads we traveled were cobblestones of varying depths. We, meaning the kids and me, complain about carrying it with us when he isn’t using it or storing it in restaurants due to its size, but it increases our family accessibility from baseball games to yard work.
Germany was an amazing experience for our family to explore. While the 67 miles we walked and he pushed over eight days was a lot, our children will never forget the views, history lessons, pretzels, sausages, and languages witnessed. Neither will we, for that matter. So a big hearty thank you to Allison and Brian for Spring Break 2023-- and to Geoff for always reminding us of the balance between playing it safe and trying out the sketchy crap just to keep our hearts pumping and laughter light. And for the folks like Uncle Kenny and our parents who looked after things on the homefront while we wandered, trained, and ate all over Germany, thank you!