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We visited The Beatles Story, located at the Royal Albert Dock in Liverpool. As you can probably tell from the name, this is a museum about The Beatles.
The museum itself is located down some stairs. However, there is a small lift available for wheelchair users to use. It is one of those small lifts that will fit one wheelchair and you have to hold a button down to get to the floor you wish to go to. If you use a motorised scooter, it will not fit in the lift but the website does suggest that you get in touch with them if you do use a scooter.
There are concessionary prices for disabled people to get in and carers go for free. After you have paid, you are supplied with an audio guidebook. The guidebook is full of interesting information about the exhibits that you are looking at but, unfortunately, it has a touchscreen to operate it, so if you are visually impaired you may have difficulty in seeing the touchscreen to operate the guidebook. As John has no vision at all, he was unable to use the guidebook by himself. Another issue that John had was that with his hearing loss, he had difficulty in hearing what the guidebook was saying, and was relying on me to both operate the guidebook and tell him what it was saying.
The museum is laid out so that it goes in chronological order from The Beatles’ early beginnings and rise to fame, to what individual band members did after The Beatles split.
I found it really enjoyable and interesting, and would definitely visit again. However, John isn’t sure that he would want to as I don’t think he got as much out of the visit as I did.
The video is below.
We are a family of three. George has ASD, EDS and dyspraxia. John is totally blind and partially deaf. Sue is our driver and trip organiser. These are the tales of our adventures. All opinions are our own.
Friday, 25 January 2019
Friday, 18 January 2019
National Space Centre
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On this visit we went to the National Space Centre in Leicester (pronounced ‘Lester’ for readers outside of the UK)
Accessibility is good and carers can go in free, while disabled visitors pay a concessionary rate. There is also the option to have your tickets upgraded to an annual pass, for no additional charge. There is a charge for parking, which I believe has been introduced relatively recently, judging by the reactions of other visitors on the car park.
There is plenty to see and do, and there’s even a box of costumes for children to dress up in and return when they’ve finished playing. The show in the Planetarium was both fun and educational to watch, and there is a loop system there for hearing aid users.
George and I had a go in the Weather Pod. This is an area where you pretend to be a weather forecaster from the future. There is a green screen behind you and a camera with autocue in front, so you know what to say! George didn’t read any of the autocue because he was worried about keeping up with it. I read the autocue too quickly, so I had to keep stopping to wait for it to catch up! Maybe next time we can strike that happy medium!
Unfortunately, we had camera problems on the day and we didn’t get to film everything - for example the items, such as upright rockets, on display in the very strangely shaped tower there.
We did have an enjoyable day though and we would visit again.
On this visit we went to the National Space Centre in Leicester (pronounced ‘Lester’ for readers outside of the UK)
Accessibility is good and carers can go in free, while disabled visitors pay a concessionary rate. There is also the option to have your tickets upgraded to an annual pass, for no additional charge. There is a charge for parking, which I believe has been introduced relatively recently, judging by the reactions of other visitors on the car park.
There is plenty to see and do, and there’s even a box of costumes for children to dress up in and return when they’ve finished playing. The show in the Planetarium was both fun and educational to watch, and there is a loop system there for hearing aid users.
George and I had a go in the Weather Pod. This is an area where you pretend to be a weather forecaster from the future. There is a green screen behind you and a camera with autocue in front, so you know what to say! George didn’t read any of the autocue because he was worried about keeping up with it. I read the autocue too quickly, so I had to keep stopping to wait for it to catch up! Maybe next time we can strike that happy medium!
Unfortunately, we had camera problems on the day and we didn’t get to film everything - for example the items, such as upright rockets, on display in the very strangely shaped tower there.
We did have an enjoyable day though and we would visit again.
Friday, 11 January 2019
National Brewery Centre
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We visited the National Brewery Centre in Burton-on-Trent, Staffordshire. It was a very interesting visit as we learned about brewing through the ages. We discovered that the actual brewing process hasn’t really changed over the years, just the scale of the process has changed. I have to wonder about the relationship between making a cup of tea and making beer though. Some people refer to making a cup of tea as ‘making a brew’ and beer is brewed. Also during the beer brewing process, the beer is allowed to ‘mash’ or ‘steep’, which are also terms used in making a cup of tea.
We also looked at the different ways of transporting the beer to pubs. We met a beautiful shire horse called Jed, who became John’s new best friend, and saw some of the dreys that shire horses like Jed, would have pulled to deliver the beer. There was also a collection of old trucks that were used for deliveries, including some that looked quite novel as they were in the shape of a beer barrel and a beer bottle!
When you pay your entrance fee to go into the centre, you are given three tokens that allow you to sample the beer. One token gets you a third of a pint, two gets you half a pint and three gives you a pint. This allows to sample up to three different types of beer, should you want to. For under 18s, their tokens allow them to get a soft drink. I didn’t pay an entrance fee as I went in as a carer, so I didn’t get any tokens. I didn’t mind because I don’t like the taste of beer and I don’t really drink anyway.
We found it to be accessible, although there were some exhibits George couldn’t see because they weren’t wheelchair accessible. The staff were helpful and friendly too. We’d definitely visit again.
The video is below.
We visited the National Brewery Centre in Burton-on-Trent, Staffordshire. It was a very interesting visit as we learned about brewing through the ages. We discovered that the actual brewing process hasn’t really changed over the years, just the scale of the process has changed. I have to wonder about the relationship between making a cup of tea and making beer though. Some people refer to making a cup of tea as ‘making a brew’ and beer is brewed. Also during the beer brewing process, the beer is allowed to ‘mash’ or ‘steep’, which are also terms used in making a cup of tea.
We also looked at the different ways of transporting the beer to pubs. We met a beautiful shire horse called Jed, who became John’s new best friend, and saw some of the dreys that shire horses like Jed, would have pulled to deliver the beer. There was also a collection of old trucks that were used for deliveries, including some that looked quite novel as they were in the shape of a beer barrel and a beer bottle!
When you pay your entrance fee to go into the centre, you are given three tokens that allow you to sample the beer. One token gets you a third of a pint, two gets you half a pint and three gives you a pint. This allows to sample up to three different types of beer, should you want to. For under 18s, their tokens allow them to get a soft drink. I didn’t pay an entrance fee as I went in as a carer, so I didn’t get any tokens. I didn’t mind because I don’t like the taste of beer and I don’t really drink anyway.
We found it to be accessible, although there were some exhibits George couldn’t see because they weren’t wheelchair accessible. The staff were helpful and friendly too. We’d definitely visit again.
The video is below.
Friday, 4 January 2019
Jodrell Bank
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We visited Jodrell Bank one Saturday morning during term-time. We found this to be a fairly quiet time to visit, which was great because it gave George the confidence to go ahead of John and me, and have a look around.
The gardens were interesting to look at - particularly the Galaxy Garden, which was an interesting way of demonstrating the formation of the universe.
There are plenty of hands on activities to do, which meant John was able to take part and not just be told about what I was seeing.
We had lunch in the cafe there before we left. The prices for reasonable, and the staff in there were really helpful and helped carry our food to a table.
Overall it was an enjoyable visit and we found Jodrell Bank itself to be very accessible. We would visit again.
We visited Jodrell Bank one Saturday morning during term-time. We found this to be a fairly quiet time to visit, which was great because it gave George the confidence to go ahead of John and me, and have a look around.
The gardens were interesting to look at - particularly the Galaxy Garden, which was an interesting way of demonstrating the formation of the universe.
There are plenty of hands on activities to do, which meant John was able to take part and not just be told about what I was seeing.
We had lunch in the cafe there before we left. The prices for reasonable, and the staff in there were really helpful and helped carry our food to a table.
Overall it was an enjoyable visit and we found Jodrell Bank itself to be very accessible. We would visit again.
Tuesday, 1 January 2019
Happy New Year!
A really short blog today to wish you all a very Happy New Year and a wonderful 2019. Thank you for the support you’ve given during the five months our YouTube channel has been going, and we hope you continue to enjoy our videos in 2019.
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