Turin Trip

For this match I decided to arrange the trip myself rather than rely on ThomasCook Sport. My family owns wheelchair friendly property in South East Spain. Finding suitable accommodation has always proved difficult previously and is the main reason why I have done daytrips to most European matches.

This trip to Spain was different however. I booked the flights to and from Murcia shortly after the draw was made. I remember thinking ‘we own property an hour north of the south tip of Spain and Madrid is only slightly above half way down, so it’s not far’ Well, maybe I was mistaken!

I got the match tickets from Chelsea a few weeks before the trip. I had to complete a declaration form detailing my flight and accommodation arrangements and picked them up before a home league match.

My PA (Ivana) and I flew to Murcia Airport at midday the day before the match (Monday 2nd Nov). We stayed at the family bungalow and left for Madrid in our hire car at 10 o’clock on Tuesday morning. We took with us one of the best inventions in the last century ‘a satellite navigation system’ [sat nav]. Downloaded with the Southern European roadmaps, this proved invaluable. When we set out I calculated the journey to the Stadium itself via the POI (points of interest) /Stadia menu. It told us the ETA was 14.24.

We had one toilet break after a few hours. There were no disabled facilities so the bottle I carry around in my bag just for these occasions came in handy. We got to Madrid at about 3 o’clock and just followed the sat nav straight into a tunnel. This tunnel went on and on………and on. Now, as I said before sat nav’s are brilliant, but take them in a tunnel ie: outside the satellite GPS, and they become about as useful as a handbrake on a canoe. Usually a tunnel is easy - you just go in one end and come out the other – you don’t need a sat nav to do that. However this tunnel had loads of different exits and roads splitting all over the place. So what to do? Well, you do all you can – you just guess. We couldn’t believe our luck when we emerged through one exit and saw the Estadio Vicente Calderon directly in front of us.

We drove right up to the stadium and Ivana suggested we leave the car in one of the numerous empty parking spaces. ‘I think it may well get a bit busy later’ I said. We drove away from the ground and through a shorter tunnel; well, it was probably the same one, just a different entrance and exit! We spotted a disabled parking space close-by and as we reversed into it, a parking warden by chance was walking past. Ivana asked her if we could park there. ‘No problem’ she said. Well, that’s what she appeared to gesture. She actually said something in Spanish. That’s about as much use to me as a sat nav in a tunnel but Ivana being multi-lingual seemed happy enough so that was good enough for me!

So with my blue disabled badges on show (I decided to take the risk of not displaying them in the Gatwick car park) and in a disabled parking bay….and being a wheelchair user I felt confident of having my car legally parked, 20 minutes walk from the stadium until after the match. [are you listening Chelsea & Westminster borough council!]

With the time at 3.30 we had 4 hours to explore Madrid before having to find our way back to the Stadium. Located 2,100 ft (635m) above sea level Madrid is one of Europe’s highest capital Cities. The photo below (left) is of me on an approach to one of the bridges over the canalized River Manzanares (little visible water). The stadium is behind me.

We made our way through the streets to the Plaza Mayor. This is an impressive structure located near Puerta del sol. The Plaza Mayor is essentially a large square surrounded by a wide variety of pricey bars, restaurants and a number of souvenir shops and novelty shops selling hats, coins and ornaments. We stopped to buy some souvenirs and to eat some paella. I also managed to find a decent disabled toilet in our Paella restaurant which is always very welcome.

We allowed ourselves an hour and a half before kick off to get from the Plaza Mayor back to the Stadium. I had printed off the travel advice that Chelsea had provided on their website. This said that the disabled access was via gate 6. So seeing gates 17 & 18 in front of us we simply went round to gate 6. The entry was simple, the gates were opened and Ivana pushed me straight through. I had the tickets in my hand but no-one even attempted to look at them. It was almost as if the gate staff had seen my Chelsea Baseball cap and thought ‘You must be here for the football, Welcome’. No security check of my bag, no questions; just a female steward to lead us to our space. Such a change from England where you are treated like a criminal at every stadium you visit. Still, I suppose I’d rather the hassle of being searched than being blown up by a bomb!

The picture above (right) shows our position within the Stadium and the view we had. As you can see, this was very good. There were no supporters in front of us and no obstructions. Personally, I prefer a view from a higher location to get a better perspective of the match. So often in those circumstances however (ie – Stoke, Wigan, Fulham, Coventry, Reading, Porto, Rosenburg to name but a few) you choose a higher location just to find that when a chance of a goal is likely, everyone stands up in front of you and you see nothing! This is so frustrating and a position at pitch level is much preferable to it.

There was in fact enough room for many wheelchairs in this corner. Being the only wheelchair bound Chelsea fan I had the freedom to choose wherever gave me the best view. This was right next to the corner flag as you can see below.

As the evening progressed, it did become quite chilly. During the afternoon, t-shirts were the order of the day but as we made our way on the 20 minute trip back to the car, I could have done with a jacket over my fleece. The Sat Nav along with Ivana's exemplary driving got us back to our South-east coast base at 3.40 with one petrol stop.