Monday 10th May - RADAR

Back to work today. Up early and on the phone to finalise some appointments for later this week. I spent some time at RADAR today which was very worthwhile. Long history in the sector and interesting the changes they have gone through over the last 6-8 years, some due to funding. The day was more about general systemic representation and access as opposed to accessible travel - but really interesting to see the similarities (and differences) in the sector in the UK compared with Australia. A few more contacts made to follow up on and squeeze into the schedule. We are hoping to get to Bristol for a day this week as the meeting in Bournemouth has been rearranged to be in London later in the week. By coincidence I will meet up with an old school friend in London on Thursday. Janet Scharbow (Pidsley) is currently here as well - I look forward to seeing her.

Weekend 8-9 May

Another weekend in London - tired? We have to get out and see things - time to catch up later! So this weekend we did sleep in a bit and then walked the South bank from Tower Bridge to Lambeth Bridge and back up past Westminster. While we missed election day we are now being bombarded with the discussions taking place between the various parties. Interesting time to be here - especially when our original plan would have had us in Greece. We spent time at the Globe Theatre, Tate Modern and thoroughly enjoyed meandering along the Thames discussing the various buildings we were viewing.
Sunday morning saw us sleep in again and then head east - Petticoat Lane Markets and Spittalfield Markets and then a walk up Brick Lane in the late afternoon before Dinner. A nice mix of cultures over the weekend.

Friday 7th May

Today we spent some time in Brussels and travelled back to London. Our home for this stay in London is at Aldgate near the Thames and Tower. We are starting to tire a little and need to spend a quiet weekend catching up I think

Thursday 6th May - Leuven - ENAT AGM

Lueven is a smaller city about 20 minutes east of Brussels. Another very old city with lots of interesting buildings to keep you walking for hours. I spent most of the day attending the ENAT AGM which was held at the Boerobund (Farmers Union) Building in Leuven. Ivor Ambrose is Managing Director of ENAT (European Nations Accessible Tourism) and had invited me to attend as IDEAS is an associate member. The day was very interesting and I learnt alot about some of the organsations in Europe involved in accessible tourism. It was interesting also to see the machinations of a european not for profit and how similar we all are. There was another call today for the development of an international network of some sort. I will meet up with Ivor and Lillian Muller (ENAT Chair) again in Sweden. This meeting has given me more research to do on other organisations and funding of activities we need to do.

Brussels Tuesday 4th -Friday 7th May

We headed to Brussels on the Eurostar on Tuesday morning. More cold weather (it hasn't got above 10 degrees since we left Phoenix)- we are getting used to it - preparing us for winter when we get home. We spent some time on Wednesday in the old city in Brussels and also spent some time at the Flanders Infopoint where I gained alot of information on accessible tourism in Flanders.

Weekend 1-3 May

The UK doesn't surprise us this weekend - cold and raining, however it is nice to see the red buses and black cabs. We spent the long weekend looking at London - the British Library, Convent Garden, Trafalgar Square to name a few. An Evening at the Theatre in the West End - what better than Oliver with Griff Rhys Jones when in London! Unfortunately it is a long weekend and so some phone calls that were planned for the weekend will have to wait till after Brussels. We stayed at Kings Cross which provided us with pleasant surrounds and some good pub grub.

London

We arrived into London yesterday and guess what - cold and raining, long weekend and its great to be here. Heading off to the British Library today.