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Brussels, Belgium
Brussels, Belgium
I did a trip to Brussels last weekend. After recent trips to Barcelona and Berlin my experience in Brussels for wheelchair accessibility was nowhere near as good.
The trams were not accessible, the buses are supposed to be but I have heard from others that the ramps often don’t work (I didn’t try them.) I got a taxi from Midi station to the Grand Place which cost me €10 for a regular taxi (a tram would have been about €2), when I wanted to go back to my hotel I found the taxi rank and a driver went off to find a different driver with a wheelchair accessible taxi. As he was about to put me in he told me it would be €25 for this ‘special’ taxi… I said too expensive, I could get in a normal taxi, so he dropped the price to €15 which I accepted because I didn’t have the energy to argue further.
Grand Place and the streets around have cobblestones that make for a very wobbly ride. Most of the shops have one or more (often BIG) steps to get in. The restaurant I went to, and one of the bars, I could only access the outside tables. The Irish bar I got in with a little help but the gents toilets were down stairs and the ladies up stairs. I did not see an accessible toilet the whole day I was out.
The Sunday I was lacking in energy and didn’t want to be fleeced again for taxis so spent the day in the vicinity of Midi station until my Eurostar departed in the evening. Around the station on a Sunday it seems all the surrounding streets are turned in to a giant market. And for six weeks in the summer the streets near my hotel are turned in to a fairground.
I stayed at the Hotel Mercure Midi Central which was very accessible.
More details coming on my blog in the next few days.
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