This is my story of travelling with Tom Chambers to Strasbourg

This is my story of travelling with Tom Chambers to Strasbourg from 11th to 17th September as members of the Strasbourg Freedom Drivers 2011 by Kathy Kilbane

Saturday 10th September 2011

Went to toms house at 11.50pm we had arranged to leave at midnight, tom asked me to put things in car and turn off lights and close curtains, at this point I had looked at the travel document folder and left it on computer table,
Off we set on journey to Dublin, we had a coffee stop at 3am then made good time to airport.
Tom had prepaid the car park and he mentioned the paper work I said where you put it he said he didn’t. Suddenly I thought OMG we have left it in Mayo, this was 3.45 am!! So no point in panicking as we had booked in online and the only thing we didn’t have for the journey to Strasbourg was the train ticket from Frankfurt to Strasbourg so we got our suitcases and headed on bus from long term car park to airport, we got to check in desk Lufthansa and there was no problem!!!We checked in and they took our bags and we breathed a sighed of relief…. (All we had to do was show our Passports)
Next we found a computer and had a look for as much info as possible on our onward travel, we printed off what we had including the name and location of the hotel we were to stay while in Strasbourg and then went for breakfast.

Sunday 12th
Arrived in Frankfurt, Tom was happy with the manual handling he had in Frankfurt and the flight was pleasant.
Mobility assistance helped us to get to the (train station which was adjacent to airport) and retrieve our luggage, they were very helpful.
We met an unfriendly lady in the travel centre who basically said tough luck!!Buy another ticket one way each to Strasbourg, so that’s what we did.
We had to change trains 3 times which was quite stressful and the trains were busy some accessible wheelchair spaces were in use for luggage, bikes, prams act.
Finally we got to Strasbourg about 6.30pm asked for help at the mobility centre in station they recommended getting a taxi to hotel in Lingolshiem which was 20 mins from centre of town. On way to hotel they phoned us to see if we were arriving that night as planned we told them we were on the way.
We checked in, had a look at Tom’s room which had two single beds in decided to make it more accessible we needed to remove one bed so we doubled up mattresses, and stood up the base against the wall (where it stayed all week)
I went to my room upstairs and went to bed What a Day!!
Monday 12th

Monday this was a free day, so we got a bus from very near hotel and then a tram into the centre we stopped at a pub café called” Eurocafe” this became our base camp for the day and indeed the meet point for the week,
We met up with Arron and his P/A Eric at lunchtime and stayed with them chatting and had lunch. Later that day Nina came along and we talked about the itinerary, and told our story!!!
The first evening we left town late and got the tram back to Lingolshiem only to find that this was not the right stop!!After a lot of messing around we finally got a wheelchair taxi at midnight to pick us up from a bus stop and take us to hotel
Well imagine our horror we were locked out!!!So the taxi driver had to rescue us and call hotel manager to come back to hotel to let us in we had not been told of the hotels strange opening hours and how to get in after 10pm…..
Needless to say this was stressful and annoying for us.
Next morning I complained to hotel and they admitted their responsibility in not informing us of the rules and showed me how to get in at night…
Tom also got 100.euro off bill and two breakfasts knocked off for inconvenience

Tuesday 13th
We met up with Aaron and Eric and had chat and we arranged to go to European parliament at 2pm for a meeting with the Irish M E Ps in Strasbourg,
The meeting was attended by 16 members of CIL nation wide and their P/as
The MEPs that attended were

Marion Harkin Sean Kelly Paul Murphy (Independent)
Jim Higgins Pat the cope Gallagher
Barbara de Bruin Misread McGuiness Phil Prendergast

The purpose of this meeting was to highlight and discuss matters related to independent living and cutbacks; this was a prelude to the meeting on Wednesday in the E U with all the freedom drivers after the march
Wednesday 14th September
Freedom March
We all met in?????????? For 10 am there were many people on the drive from all over Europe and the atmosphere was great,
We set off on the march and marched for 2 miles chanting and singing as we went along…..
Finally we reached the E U and the demands were presented in a closed session.
That evening we had a barbeque hosted by the Lord Mayor of Strasbourg this was a fun evening for all.
Thursday 15th
Free morning and then a meeting of all freedom drivers and MEPs from all countries and heads of various commites,the drivers spoke of their problems in their own countries and it was very moving, undertakings were given and hope was offered for the future …..
We all went for dinner in a Chinese restaurant which was nice then back to hotel.
Friday 16th September
This was a free day so Tom and I went on a boat trip Aaron and Eric joined us too this was lovely and interesting and the weather was beautiful, we then split up to do our own thing and meet up later for dinner in the Dubliners Pub for Dinner.
Saturday 17th
Return journey Toms P/A had sent on tickets for return journey so no worries there. We had a good journey back we left hotel 9am and was back in Newport at 9.45 that evening.