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STROLLING IN SPAIN
(continued)
Toledo, Madrid & Segovia
Wheelchair Accessible Travel In Spain -
2004
By Howard L. Chabner and Michele E. DeSha
© Howard L. Chabner and Michele E. DeSha
2004
VIII.
TOLEDO
Toledo – Terrain
Toledo is very hilly – the clear,
expansive views of the surrounding countryside from the old city and the
views of the old city from the hilly countryside are a big part of its
attraction. The former capital of Spain and home of El Greco is extremely
well preserved and clean, with stone buildings in an appealing unity of
style, many of which are undergoing restoration and renovation. The main
streets are navigable in an electric wheelchair, but many areas have steep
compound angles and assistance is occasionally required. A person in a
manual wheelchair would need to be pushed throughout much of the city.
Many of the smaller streets have stairs, so in a wheelchair one often must
take the longer route, but the city center is small and distances are
short. Most streets lack sidewalks; it’s essential to beware of cars.
The advantage is that curbs are not an issue.
We enjoyed Toledo very much and
enthusiastically recommend it despite the terrain. By comparison, Toledo
is far less steep, winding and confusing than Siena, Italy, and the
streets are not as narrow.
Toledo – Transportation
Because the old city center is compact, we didn’t use public
transportation. The city operates a tourist “train” of several open cars;
this didn’t appear accessible.
Toledo – Hotels
Where We Stayed
Hotel San Juan de los Reyes.
Four star. Reyes Catolicos, 5. Phone 011-34-
925-283-535; fax 011-34-925-221-410.
www.hotelsanjuandelosreyes.com.
This 38-room hotel is well located in the
old city center very close to the El Greco Museum, Transito
Synagogue/Sephardic Museum and San Juan de los Reyes Monastery. It’s not
far from the Cathedral as the crow flies but, because many of the small
streets have stairs, a wheelchair must take the longer route, which takes
about 15 minutes. The street in the immediate vicinity of the hotel is
flat, which is unusual in Toledo.
Opened in
2000, the hotel is in a 19th century brick building. One
important feature is the garage in the basement, which is accessible via
the regular elevators. This was quite an advantage for transferring and
unloading. There are a couple of stairs at the front entrance and a ramp
wouldn’t be feasible because of space constraints and because it would
protrude into the street. Wheelchair access is through the café, which
has a moderately steep slope at the entrance and automatic sliding doors.
This was fine because the café entrance is only a few feet from the front
entrance and the café is open late. The hotel has an accessible public
bathroom at the lobby level.
We stayed in room 004 on the ground
floor. We were told there is another adapted room identical to it,
including a roll-in-shower. The room is very well lit and has good air
conditioning. There is no view. The bedroom is small, but there was
sufficient space for Howard to maneuver his wheelchair. Most likely the
bedroom is small because the bathroom is so large.
The bathroom is superb; it was by far the
largest and best-designed accessible bathroom we saw in Spain, and one of
the best anywhere! The floor and walls are warm sandy colored granite.
There is a spacious, well designed roll-in shower with several grab bars
and an easily reachable soap holder. The shower hose is long and well
located, and has strong water pressure. The floor has good drainage. The
only flaw is that the floor is slippery; it is the same shiny stone
surface as the walls and lacks anti-skid tape. The hotels’ architects and
owners are to be highly praised for including roll-in showers when,
inexplicably, many other newly renovated hotels in Spain lack this
essential feature.
The toilet is large, long and high (a bit
higher than typical accessible ones in the U.S.); it is similar to many of
the accessible toilets in Italy. There is a fixed grab bar on one side
and a fold-down one on the other, with plenty of transfer space at the
side with the fold-down bar. The sink is large and has a long lever
faucet handle. The towel rack and mirrors are at a good accessible
height. Toledo was one of our last stops and, after having to work around
barriers at so many hotel bathrooms, it was a welcome relief to have a
nearly perfect one!
A solo wheelchair traveler would
encounter some barriers in the bedroom, though fewer than any other hotel
we stayed in. The door is heavy and the room entrance hall is narrow.
The built-in closets are not accessible to most people who use
wheelchairs. Overall, however, we were very pleased with access at Hotel
San Juan de los Reyes and would gladly stay there again.
Other Hotels to Consider
The following hotel told us it has an
adapted room, though without a roll-in shower:
Hotel Abad.
Three star. Renovated in 2002. Real del Arrabal, 1. Phone
011-34-925-283-500.
www.hotelabad.com;
info@hotelabad.com.
Hotels Without Adapted Rooms
The following hotels told us they do not
have adapted rooms:
Parador de Toledo.
Four star. Cerro del Emperador. Phone 011-34-925-221-850.
www.parador.es;
Toledo@parador.es.
Hotel Pintor el Greco.
Three star. Alamillos del
Tránsito, 13. Phone 011-34-902-154-645.
www.hotelpintorelgreco.com.
Toledo – Monuments and Museums
Cathedral.
The main entrance is accessible, but you must ask the guard to open the
large doors. There is one high stair to the museum containing several
rooms of superb El Grecos and some Caravaggios and Titians; there is a
portable ramp but you must ask the guard to set it out. There are two
very high stairs up to the choir and no ramp, but much of the choir can be
seen from below. There is one medium height stair to the treasure room;
there is no ramp but Michele was able to tilt Howard’s wheelchair.
El Greco Museum/House.
Unfortunately but understandably, this Renaissance era palazzo is not
wheelchair accessible: all the galleries are up one or two flights of
stairs and there is no elevator.
San Juan de los Reyes Monastery.
This building is inaccessible; the areas open for viewing are up a flight
of stairs.
San Tome Church.
This small church contains El Greco’s masterpiece The Burial of the Count
of Orgaz, which is in almost pristine condition even though, according to
the guides, it’s never been restored. The building is accessible via an
entrance on the left side as one faces the front. The side entrance is
uphill from the main entrance where the ticket window is located. A guard
will open the side doors.
Sephardic Museum/Transito Synagogue.
This grand, meticulously restored 14th century synagogue
features an ornate yet elegant wooden coffered ceiling in Mudejar style,
beautiful decorative horseshoe arches, and friezes of Hebrew letters in a
variety of styles. Access is via a narrow but gradual ramp. There is no
elevator, so the second floor isn’t accessible, but the restored sanctuary
and many exhibits with artifacts covering ten centuries of Sephardic
history are on the ground floor, so a visit is very worthwhile. We highly
recommend the informative audioguide. There is a patio in the rear with
ancient Jewish gravestones; it is accessible via a gradual ramp. The gift
shop is on the ground floor and the bathrooms are on the second floor.
The gift shop has a large selection of books about Sephardic history,
including several in English. Because of the incomplete access, admission
is free for wheelchair users.
Synagogue Santa Maria la Blanca.
This beautiful synagogue was built in the 11th century in
Arabic style. Its horseshoe arches, feeling of open space and intricate
friezes with abstract patterns echo, on a much smaller scale, those of the
Mezquita in Cordoba. Wheelchair access is via a side entrance with one
moderate height stair; the entrance is on the left side of the building as
one faces the front. It took some persistence to get the guard to open
the side entrance, but once he did, he was eager to explain the building
to Michele in Spanish. There is only one floor, so it’s easy to see
everything. The area in front of the building is undergoing renovation,
so access may be simpler in the future.
IX.
MADRID
Madrid – Terrain
Madrid is Western Europe’s highest
capital. The city center is mostly flat, but some areas have gradual
slopes. A few streets have stairs. Most intersections have curb cuts or
curb ramps, but a significant minority does not, especially near Calle
Cava Baja (a popular restaurant street), Plaza San Martin (near our hotel)
and other old parts of town. Many intersections do have gradual curb
ramps with textured surfaces for blind pedestrians, and many major
crosswalks have audible traffic signals. There are many pedestrian-only
zones and streets, and in some of them, the entire street has been raised
to sidewalk level (not only at the intersections), which is excellent. So
even though there are some gaps, the city seems to have an aggressive
program to install curb ramps and implement more pedestrian zones. We
took two walking tours on wheelchair-friendly routes with no stairs and a
minimum of slopes and curbs (see below).
Several restaurants we had heard about
and wanted to try are up two or three high stairs, or up one and
down two, or the dining room is upstairs. Although only a minority of
restaurants had these barriers, we encountered them more frequently in
Madrid than elsewhere.
Madrid – Transportation
Buses and Metro. Because the city center is compact and strolling
there is enjoyable, we didn’t use public transportation. We saw many
buses with retractable wheelchair ramps at the side door; they appeared to
have the same design as those in Barcelona.
The
Madrid public transportation company has a good website with an English
section.
www.metromadrid.es.
Taxis.
We ordered an accessible Eurotaxi one very rainy late morning and waited
only 20 minutes. The driver was terrific. We also had a good experience
taking a taxi to the airport. Phone 011-34-915-478-200 or
011-34-915-478-500 or 011-34-915-600 or 011-34-915-471-059.
Madrid – Hotels
Where We Stayed
Hotel Intur Palacio San
Martin. Four
star. Placa San Martin, 5. Phone 011-34-917-015-000; fax
011-34-917-015-010.
www.hotelinturpalacio.com.
This 90-room hotel opened three years
ago. It’s centrally located - a five-minute stroll to Plaza Mayor and 15
minutes to the Prado - but the immediate area, including Plaza San Martin,
is nondescript and drab. The hotel is in an old palazzo, but is far less
grand than “palazzo” connotes. The renovation is not well done, with
mediocre design and finishes. The large atrium lobby is a missed
opportunity – it could have been grand.
One good thing about the hotel is the
large, tasty and varied buffet breakfast served in a spacious dining room
on the top floor with a good view of Madrid. A small modern elevator
serves this floor; Howard’s wheelchair fit without much room to spare.
Service at the hotel is polite and competent but not as good as one would
expect at a four- star hotel. The room rate seemed somewhat high. While
there is no on-site parking, there is an underground public garage very
close.
We were in Room 003 on the ground floor,
which we were told is the only adapted room. The bedroom is medium size,
with adequate wheelchair maneuvering space. It is dimly lit; there are
only a few lamps and no recessed lighting; the latter could have been
installed easily in the dropped ceiling. The room is partially below
ground level; there is some, but not much, natural light through an opaque
window on the upper third of the wall. There is no view and it’s
impossible to ascertain the weather by looking out the window. On the
positive side, the light switches and receptacle for the master cardkey
necessary to turn on the electricity are low and easily reachable.
The bathroom
is fairly large, but, unfortunately, the architect squandered its size by
poor design. The only bright spot is side transfer to the toilet. There
is a fixed (wall- and floor-mounted) grab bar at one side, and a wall-hung
flip-up grab bar at the other, with plenty of space transfer space next to
the toilet when the bar is flipped up. There is a bathtub with grab bars,
and no roll-in shower. There is no shower curtain, so water splashes on
the floor when an able-bodied person showers, and there’s not even a
curtain rod, so there is nowhere to hang towels or clothes. The shower
spray hose is just too short to reach the sink, so it’s impossible to wash
one’s hair in the sink. The sink is shallow and a bit unstable. The
faucet handle is small and difficult to reach. There are no shelves for
toiletries.
The bathroom door opens against the
toilet, which prevents it from opening completely and complicates access
to the toilet, so hotel staff removed it at our request. One
of the biggest problems is that the sink is directly opposite the toilet,
leaving insufficient space for a wheelchair to face the sink. So a person
in a wheelchair must use the sink from the side, which is extremely
awkward. (This would have been even worse with the door in place.)
Finally, this was our only hotel in Spain where the water temperature
fluctuated and the only one with thin, almost threadbare towels.
Other Hotels to Consider
The following hotels told us they have
adapted rooms:
Gran Melia Fenix.
Five star. We were unable to ascertain the existence of a roll-in
shower. Hermosilla, 2. Phone 011-34-914-316-700; fax
011-34-915-754-173.
www.solmelia.com.
Playa Senator Gran Via.
Four star. We were unable to ascertain the existence of a roll-in
shower. Renovated in 2002 or 2003. Gran Via, 21. Phone
011-34-915-314-151; fax 011-34-915-240-799.
www.hotelsenatorgranvia.com.
Hotels Without Adapted Rooms
The following hotels told us they do not
have adapted rooms:
Hotel Adler. Five
star. Calle Velazquez 33, Goya 31. Phone
1-866-376-7831, or
1-305-538-9697 (Miami).
www.epoquehotels.com.
Hotel Arosa (Best
Western). Four star. Calle Salud, 21 and Gran Via, 29. Phone
011-34-915-321-600.
www.hotelarosa.com.
Hotel Bauza. Four star. Calle Goya, 79. Phone
011-34-914-357-545.
www.hotelbauza.com.
Hotel Carlos V (Best
Western). Three star. Maestro Victoria, 5. Phone
011-34-915-314-100.
www.hotelcarlosv.com.
Hotel Opera. Three
star. Calle Cuesta de Santa Domingo, 2. Phone 011-34-915-412-800.
www.hotelopera.com.
Hotel Preciados. Four
star. Preciados, 37. Phone 011-34-914-544-400.
www.preciadoshotel.com.
Hotel H10 Villa de la Reina.
Four star. Gran Via, 22. Phone 011-34-915-239-101.
www.hotelvilladelareina.com.
Madrid – Tour Guide and Museums
Tour Guide. We had two lively, fascinating walking tours with
Englishman Stephen Drake-Jones, the chairman/founder of the Wellington
Society of Madrid. (Go to his website to find out why the Duke of
Wellington is important in Madrid history!) A history professor and
raconteur who’s lived in Madrid for 28 years, Stephen has an infectious
passion for Madrid, an historian’s grasp of the broad sweep of events, an
encyclopedic knowledge of the details and a personal anecdote about every
nook and cranny of Madrid. Stephen proudly designed two
wheelchair-friendly routes with no stairs and a minimum of slopes and
curbs.
Stephen Drake-Jones. Cell phone 011-34-609-143-203.
www.wellsoc.org;
chairman@wellsoc.org.
Prado Musuem. This world-class, do-not-miss museum is very well
organized, both in physical layout and thematically. Access is quite good
and the staff was extremely helpful to explain the route, so we had no
wasted motion.
The
main entrance, the Goya Entrance, is on the north side. The ground floor
entrance is level. But past the entrance vestibule there are several
stairs leading down to the ground floor galleries, with a small stairlift
that was too small and had too low a weight capacity for Howard’s
wheelchair. So, in order to access the ground floor galleries, it was
necessary to take one of the large elevators near the Goya Entrance up to
the first or second floor, go all the way to the other end of the building
(near the Murillo Entrance), take an elevator back down to the ground
floor and backtrack toward the Goya Entrance. The elevators near the
Murillo Entrance are narrow and not deep; Howard was just able to fit in
them. This process is not as complicated as it sounds, because the
building is not extremely long and has a central hallway and a simple
floor plan. All the first and second floor galleries are level. As you
are on the second or first floor anyway, it’s advisable to see those
galleries (which feature magnificent paintings by Goya, Velazquez, El
Greco, Murillo, Zurburan, Dutch masters, and Rubens and other Flemish
masters) before going back down to the ground floor. Also, the accessible
bathroom on the second floor is larger and more modern than the one on the
ground floor.
On the
ground floor, toward the Goya Entrance, there are a handful of galleries
(mostly of Flemish painting) up several stairs from the ground floor
itself and accessed only by another small stairlift that was too small and
had too low a weight capacity for Howard’s wheelchair; these were the only
galleries Howard was unable to see.
Reina Sofia Museum.
This important collection of European modern art, including Picasso’s
Guernica, significant works by Dali and works by less well known Spanish
modern artists, is housed in an unpleasant, nondescript old palace. The
entrance is level and the large, modern elevators serve all floors except
the basement. The accessible bathroom is adequate. All galleries are up
one high stair from the main hallway, but each gallery entrance has a ramp
with an anti-skid surface. The café is in the basement, so you need to
ask a guard to take you to one of the restricted service elevators.
Thyssen Bornemisza Museum.
This cheerful modern building with abundant natural light, wide spaces and
an attractive plan has superb access. The entrance is level, the
elevators large, all galleries are level, the accessible bathroom is large
and well designed and the gift shop has relatively wide aisles. The
collection is more eclectic than deep.
X.
SEGOVIA
We took a day trip to see the aqueduct, one of the
world’s most impressive and best-preserved feats of Roman hydraulic
engineering. Segovia is an easy hour’s drive from Madrid and there are
gorgeous lush green hills along the way.
Parking.
There is a convenient underground garage near the pedestrian zone on the
side of the aqueduct closest to the old city, with wide disabled parking
spaces, a surprisingly large and clean accessible bathroom (up a
moderately steep slope) and a moderately steep series of pedestrian
walkways to enter and exit the garage. The garage is approximately two
blocks from the aqueduct. Cars are prohibited in the center near the
aqueduct.
Aqueduct.
For information about the aqueduct’s history and architecture, see
http://www.cyberspain.com/ciudades-patrimonio/fotos/segacui.htm.
Nearly 2,000 years old and built of
stone without mortar or concrete, this extraordinary Roman aqueduct was
one of our highlights! The dramatic section in the center of town has two
rows of arches, one on top of the other. The area surrounding the main
part of the aqueduct is paved in rough cobblestones, but it was easily
navigable in Howard’s electric wheelchair. At one part of the aqueduct
there is a series of stairways leading to up toward the top of the
aqueduct. But one can proceed along the bottom quite far in the other
direction. There are no stairs but after some distance there is a fairly
steep hill; it’s navigable in an electric wheelchair without assistance,
but most people in manual wheelchairs would need to be pushed.
Town.
A charming main street zigzags up from the plaza at the bottom of the
aqueduct to the town’s main plaza at the hilltop; it is smooth and
moderately steep. It was easily navigable in Howard’s electric wheelchair
without assistance, but most people in manual wheelchairs would need to be
pushed. Many of the side streets have stairs. The main plaza is open and
inviting, and there are several interesting buildings, stores and pastry
shops along the main street, so the climb is worthwhile.
Cathedral.
The main cathedral at the plaza on the hilltop has only one small stair at
the entrance. A couple of the side rooms have one medium height stair.
There are no stairs to enter the cloister.
Additional Information &
Appendices A, B & C
Spain: An Introduction
& Barcelona
Granada
Cordoba & Seville
Read Howard & Michelle's other adventures.
Rolling in Rome
Paris Passerselles
Home
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Global Access Disabled Travel Network
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