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| THE NETHERLANDS - April 1999 and June 2004 | |||||||||||||||||||||||
 We stayed at Camping Koningshof near Leiden for a week and I can recommend this site. It has disabled facilities, the resturant and a bar are accessible and the site owner is a gem ! We took my bicycle and Wendy's electric scooter. We hardly used the car. Holland has a good network of cycleways, a boon to wheelchair users especially if you have an electric scooter. From Camping Konnigshof it is easy to visit Leiden and the coastal resorts. I recall the nearby station where you could catch a train to Amsterdam as being wheelchair friendly but we did not use the trains so cannot pass any comment on these. We went by coach into Amsterdam.(I would not like to drive there) and I had to lift Wendy on and off the coach. I don't recall Amsterdam as being particularly wheelchair friendly although we managed. It does have some cobbled streets and of course the tram lines can present an obstacle. The canal trips are certainly not wheelchair friendly and again it was a carry on and off job and leave the wheelchair on the quay side.(Subsequent to this trip we have become aware that there is a wheelchair accessible boat available) In April the tulip gardens at Keukenhof are not to be missed. There are no problems with a wheelchair here. There are no steps and all paths are tarmac. In June 2004 we stopped off in Arnhem for a couple of days on route for Norway. We stayed 3 miles NE of Arnhem at Camping Warnsborn, a pleasant level site set in woodland. A bus to Arnhem centre is available at the site entrance but although the majority of Arnhems' busses appeared wheelchair friendly , we walked into Arnhem. Arnhem is very accessible with plenty of dropped kerbs and pedestrian zones and a wheelchair visitor should have no difficulty getting about. We spent the best part of a day, visiting the "Bridge Too Far," now named the John Frost Bridge, and the central area. Unfortunately we could not find any public wheelchair accessible toilets, not even at the main line station which was utter chaos due to major rebuilding work. On our second day we used the motorhome to drive to Oosterbeek to visit the Airborne Museum getting there early to insure we could find a place to park the motorhome. Not easy because the museum only has a small car park but we managed. The museum is established in the grounds and building originally used as the assult forces headquarters and is mostly accessible to a wheelchair user. Stairlifts have been fitted to enable a wheelchair user to access most of the museum but there is no wheelchair accessible toilet. It is well worth a visit. Afterwards we returned to site and spent the rest of the day relaxing in the sunshine around the BBQ. |