So I went ahead and booked a trip to (continental) Europe for my first visit to a zoo there, it will also be my first visit to that country too! I am booked on a easyJet flight from Liverpool to Barcelona on Friday evening, returning late Sunday evening, so will have two full days there to visit the zoo and probably the aquarium, amongst other things. I chose Barcelona for the trip because of the possibility of good weather, it is by the seaside, and Barcelona Metro is really (about 90%) wheelchair accessible. Looking forward to it but a little anxious as I haven't done such adventurous travelling since I aquired my latest disability, and I'm not as fit as I used to be. Last Saturday was my first zoo visit (Chester)in well over 3 years and only a week later Europe beckons.
Have fun! Even apart from the zoo and aquarium, Barcelona is a really interesting place - one of my favourites!
Excellent news! Be warned however, the addiction starts here! How soon do you leave? Should be fabulous, for so many reasons!
Barcelona zoo is quite nice on weekdays,very crowded on sundays. The aquarium is near by on the ramblas, is not that big,also very crowed on sundays. If you go on sunday go early for Both zoo and aquarium. You can visit Both the zoo and the aquarium on the same day and saturday would be the best day. I would suggest the zoo first so you can have dinner in the evenings at one of the many nice restaurantes on the ramblas.
I don’t think I’ve ever done anything that much on a whim before! But it’s very nice to not have to count down, anticipate and wish away time until you can go!
I think I mentioned before I booked a trip some years ago and was on the plane within six hours after driving to Heathrow!
I don't know how other people rate Barcelona's zoo, but on a purely disabled access point of view I rate it better than... Chester. In Chester I always feel I am hampered in viewing by the barriers, I am too low to comfortably see over many of them and when there a low viewing places for kids in pushchairs I am to high to see through them... The bridges in Islands at Chester can prove quite tiring to keep going over and the Elephant bridge is a killer. I spent about 6 hours in Barcelona Zoo yesterday and had very little issues. I didn't see everything and thought about going back today but my arms are worn out after yesterday's adventures and I'm finding it difficult to get the energy to leave my hotel. At €5.65 (disabled get 75% discount) Barcelona Zoo is excellent value and I'm already looking at coming back, maybe in 9 weeks time. I also liked the souvenir ticket instead of the till receipt at Chester .
That’s very interesting! Sounds like there is plenty to see there. Glad it proved to be a worthwhile trip!
Didn't get to the Aquarium today, when I eventually managed to get up and go somewhere (my arms are killing me after all the kilometres I pushed my wheelchair yesterday...) I headed to St Michael's Beach where I am now enjoying tapas of squid, prawns, baby sardines and ciperones (baby octopus) . Then it will be time to start heading back to the aeroport.
Very pleased to hear you've had such a successful first trip! I'm not sure if it would be possible or financially viable in future, but one of the things I did back when I had to use a wheelchair to visit zoos was to hire someone for a couple of hours to push me around (usually my pre-booked taxi driver) - it gets pricey though, and it needs to be organised in advance. I saw it as an investment - it would give me freedom to take photos and give me the energy to do other things, especially the following day.
The issue I had was unplanned, after the zoo I decided to go to Las Ramblas but on trying to change Metro lines at Universitat I came upon a broken lift so I had to surface. The next station, Sant Antoni, showed as being wheelchair accessible on my map but I could only find two escalators and no lift... I continued on to Para-Llel where there are four entrances, one of which has a lift but again was broken. The next station was Liceu actually on Las Ramblas so I continued. I visited a restaurant there and fortunately the lift at Liceu was working for me to get back to my hotel in Fira.
That’s so annoying and very inconvenient. I wonder if it was just a stroke of bad luck during your visit or whether their infrastructure is generally quite unreliable and experiences a lot of down time as the norm.
I think I used 10 different Metro stations with at least two lifts at each, you go down to the ticket hall and then down to the line, and at some stations you used different lifts traveling in the opposite direction. I'm guessing that I came across only two out of 40 lifts not working so not too bad. And it is often not too far to walk to the next station IF YOU KNOW THE WAY!
