So, why visit London? Yes you may wish to see Buckingham Palace, The Tower, the Houses of Parliament, maybe the British Museum that you have heard so much about. Fine, but like all Americans, you have studied history, how about the home town of the Pilgrim Fathers? No, they didn’t come from that over-crowded part of Britain called London, but a quiet country town called Boston. Boston is in Lincolnshire, part of the country that our Queen would much rather spend her time in than London. So she maintains a house in East Anglia, of which Lincolnshire is a part, called Sandringham. It is about 40 miles from Boston just outside the town of Kings Lynn in Norfolk. The estate and gardens are permanently open to the public, as is the house when the Royal Family are not in residence, which is most of the time. It is fully accessible by wheelchair, as is the church, visitor centre and the Sandringham Museum. Visit during the Autumn, when the Royal Family are most likely to be visiting, and the little old lady in the head scarf, behind you in the queue for the shop, may well be the Queen herself, and that wouldn’t happen in London!

So, that’s two places I could visit in East Anglia, if it’s deep in the country, what else could I do? Well, this part of the country is where most of Britain’s big families used to live, there is an abundance of big house estates, most like Oxburgh Hall, over 400 years old, now run by a charity called the National Trust, although some are still in the hands of their original owners. Almost all are open to the public for most of the year, all are historic and in their own right worth a visit. You may ask why? Well, even the queen can’t afford to run one of these estates today without trying to cover some of the costs somehow. Then there is beautiful countryside, flintstone cottages, many still thatched, churches the size of cathedrals, Britain’s version of the Bayou swamps, without the ‘gators and tree snakes, called the Norfolk Broads, Flatford Mill and Constable Country, castles such as at Framlingham and Norwich, even a Zoo at Banham near Diss. If you are still undecided this is also part of Britain where most of those Londoners come to retire, and many of us come to spend our holidays. So the area is used to tourists and has everything a tourist would need!

Ok, yes there are a couple of problems, one, this is a country area, public transport is not really practical for your purposes, so you will need to hire a vehicle. Now, the last thing I would recommend is a Briton hiring a vehicle from John F Kennedy and proceeding to drive into the centre of New York, there are simpler ways of committing suicide as I am sure you would agree, the same applies to London. All the same I would recommend doing just that in a country area like East Anglia. Firms like Brotherwoods, AVH Ltd and Allied Mobility, addresses from our website www.dmfed.org.uk go to links, then partners, hire all types of adapted vehicles and would deliver them to the airport for you.

Your other problem is likely to come from finding appropriately adapted hotels or self cater property. The first time I visited Canada I wrote afterwards, ‘since hotels had never heard of level access showers, that one had better take ones soap, shampoo and loofah with you when you visit Niagara Falls and take a ride on ‘The Maid of the Mist’! By my second visit two years later there was absolutely no problems in this respect with either US or Canadian hotels. We are still trying to persuade our hotel companies that it costs no more to put in a level access shower than a bath and that everyone can use them. The chances are that the best you will get a slightly larger room with a few grab handles round the bath with shower over and toilet. There are exceptions. There are some enlightened owners. These tend to be smaller privately run establishments, which of course, cost a lot more! We would recommend using a specialist travel agent used to dealing with disabled people. Global Star travel tend to have a few specialist agents on their list such as ‘Holidays For You’ (website for details again). This is a UK based company, which would be happy to deal with customers from outside the UK, but I expect you have similar specialist companies in your own country. We would not advise using a tour company, even if this is a very cheap option, a lot of the venues they offer would not be suitable for you, but you would still have to pay for them. Again there are exceptions such as Mosaic, contact by phone on international code plus 01772 325350. e-mail info@mosaicleisure.co.uk although I don’t think they at present visit this area. There is a fully adapted static caravan (trailer home to you) based at Skegness. This however is a bit north of the area I am recommending, about 20 miles North of Boston. The area is ideal for disabled people, being very flat, and lots of disabled people live in this old seaside holiday town, so plenty of specialist disability shops, just in case your wheelchair packs up during your stay! If interested get back to me and I will send you details.

So where would I recommend you to stay for a holiday in East Anglia? For the places I have mentioned I would try for a hotel in the Kings Lynn or Thetford area preferably. Both are a bit industrial, but then you are not visiting to see the town but the country outside the town, so your hotel would be a base only. Warning, petrol, gas to you Americans, comes at a heck of a price in the UK. You can get dizzy watching the dials go round as the gas goes in!! Thus, pick the area you wish to tour, find someplace in the middle, and base your holiday there. Perhaps make it a two destination holiday, moving on to the second area, London, if you must, North East England, I live there, ask and I will tell all, or Scotland, the west coast of which country I have only managed to match once, and that was Glacier Bay in Alaska.

Finally, I have thoroughly enjoyed my visits to Canada and the States. The UK is a great country to visit, we will be happy to try to return your hospitality, come and have a great holiday here.

John Killick
Hon. Sec. Disabled Motorists Federation
Editor ‘The Way Ahead’
Freelance writer.