In 2019 we were lucky enough to go to Berlin, Germany, for a trip of a lifetime.
I’ve always dreamed of going to another country. My son is a massive World War II buff. He has always been fascinated with history and wanted to see some of the iconic locations he has seen in movies and read about in books.
The Soviet War Memorial is one of several war memorials in Berlin, the capital city of Germany, erected by the Soviet Union to commemorate its war dead, particularly the 80,000 soldiers of the Soviet Armed Forces who died during the Battle of Berlin in April and May 1945. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soviet_War_Memorial_(Tiergarten)
Of course, like any Mom, I was nervous about venturing to a country that I had never been to before. So did what any modern-day person would do; Google. The information I found was a start; there was not much on traveling in a wheelchair, mainly a powerchair around Berlin. Next, I started reaching out to Facebook groups, sometimes (most times)finding out from a local is the best way to get the answers you need. Social media is an excellent tool for travel planning; Facebook, Instagram, Twitter all offer personal insight into where you are going. Just always remember to take everything with a bit of caution.
The first thing that I always look at before deciding if the location will meet our needs is transportation
When dealing with a powerchair, planning transportation from the airport to the hotel is an excellent way to decide how it will go for the rest of the trip. Taxis and car shares were not going to work for us. I moved on to private transportation; it could but would be costly. Public transportation can be your friend often in big cities like Berlin. So next, I decided to look into that. Let me say the sky opened up, and the sun began to shine.
We were flying from Copenhagen, which meant flying into one of the two Berlin airports. Luckily Schönefeld Airport had a direct train line to downtown Berlin.
Berlin is a tourist-friendly city, and the maps and directions were pretty easy to figure out. Everywhere we went was marked clearly, and we never found any stop along the train system that did not supply a wheelchair-accessible option. They even had glass elevators at some stop and I got to finally say “Gesundheit ” to a German. They thought it was great and said thank you.
If you find yourself going to Berlin, I would look into the Welcome Card. At first, I was not going to get it, but I decided to purchase it when I learned that public transportation would be the best method to get around. What an excellent investment; it covers public transportation and gives you great discounts, and includes entry into many wonderful attractions.