3 key things planning a weekend away

It’s a full year since I wrote my first blog on this page. I can’t quite believe that. Looking back on it now, I can see how unsure I was in what to write. To some extent that’s true of everything that I was doing in setting up on my own. I had a vision of something that I believed in, but the big question is if that was going to be enough. Spoiler alert: I still don’t know.

With this being the first blog of the year, it seems fitting to talk about the year ahead and the goals that I have. Maybe even include a few goal setting strategies that I’ll be using. As I said, that seems fitting, to the point of being a cliché.

This blog has always meant to be something both personal and also practical where possible. With that in mind, I’ve decided to make this blog about how I’m going to plan for an overseas trip and my first time on a plane since January 2020.

• Why am I going to Frankfurt?

  I’ve put this in a separate drop-down section in this blog because it’s not essential to the planning side of my trip but thought it was good to share why I’m going to Frankfurt. It’s also quite a long explanation, so buckle in.

  I’ve been to Germany a couple of times before, once or twice to Berlin and I’ve driven across there on Euro road trips. Frankfurt is somewhere new for me and my reason for going there is a bit unusual. It all starts with the fact that I’m a US citizen.
  
  Though I’ve got British parents, they were living in New York City when I was born. Growing up I thought that this was a pretty cool thing. Dual citizenship meant that I had more freedom to choose where to live and New York City was always top of the list of where I wanted to go.
  
  People change and so do our ambitions. The more travelling that I did over the years, the more diverse cultures I experienced meant moving to the USA became less appealing. Through part luck and part design I’m happy with calling London my home. At least for now.
  
  Back to the citizenship. It was never an issue to have an extra passport until a law was introduced in 2010 that meant all expats had to file for taxes with the IRS (Inland Revenue Service which is the equivalent of HMRC) and one of only two countries in the world that require citizens to file taxes based on their nationality rather than where they live. The other being Eritrea.
  
  Taking stock of where I am and not feeling like I either want to live in the USA or align myself culturally with them, I decided to renounce my citizenship.
  
  Once I started looking into how to do this, I was amazed what I found. Two things that really surprised me were that we have a name – Accidental Americans – are people that were either born in the USA but never lived there or born outside of the USA to parents that are US citizens. Either way, you are considered an expat. The second is how many of us there are. Some 300,000 across Europe. That’s right, that many.
  
  Renouncing your citizenship is, on paper, an easy albeit expensive process. You apply to your local consulate for an appointment and attend for an interview, paying them $2,350 for the pleasure.
  
  The issue is that over the last two years this process has been closed, so when it opened again this year there has been huge demand for appointments and people who applied were added to a waiting list. There doesn’t seem to be any acknowledgement of this increase in demand from the speed at which they are moving through this list and I’ve recently come to the realisation that it could easily be a couple of years before I get the opportunity to renounce.
  
  The answer came from, as it so often does, people who are in a similar situation. I’ve joined several online groups of Accidental Americans for two reasons. Firstly, it’s good to know you’re not the only person going through this and secondly, to get more information about what other people are doing.
  
  Looking at a Facebook group that I’d joined, one member had posted about applying to different consulates as London was one of the busier/less efficient (delete as appropriate) places for processing applications. I thought that was a great idea and immediately started applying to other locations. Belfast, Paris, Amsterdam would all be easy to get to and only involve a short flight.
  
  Checking for updates on the Facebook group while drinking a coffee one morning I saw that Frankfurt had a fast turnaround time for seeing people. I sent an email to them that morning and within half an hour they had got back to me offering me an interview to renounce my citizenship in January 2023.
  
  While I’m happy to get this appointment, I can’t help but feel a little bit frustrated that I live about 200 metres from the US embassy in London and I’m flying to Frankfurt in order to renounce my citizenship.
  
  On the other hand, it’s an opportunity to explore somewhere I’ve never been before and I plan to make the most of it by spending the weekend there after my (expensive) trip to the embassy.

  Update: I renounced my US citizenship on Friday. It was quite a quick process. I had to confirm my identity and personal details then raise my right hand to take an oath of renunciation. That felt a little strange.

  I’ve been reflecting on my decision to renounce my citizenship this weekend and I realise tha it’s something that I should have done years ago.

  Growing up, the thought of moving to the US seemed like it would be such an adventure. The reality however is that I feel as far from their culture as anywehere else in the world.

Planning for my trip

I used to fly a bit with work. Nothing exotic, but a few domestic flights per year domestically. Over the years I’ve been lucky to travel internationally a bit as well so I’m fairly adept when it comes to getting on a plane. I am however a little out of practise as it’s 3 years since my last flight.

With it being a while since I’ve been on a plane, I thought that my planning for this trip from something of a fresh perspective would be useful to share.

1.      When to travel

Picking out a time to travel somewhere usually takes a bit of consideration around work commitments, school holidays, budget and where you’re going (weather or events that might be happening there).

Luckily, or maybe not, I’m not getting a choice when I make this trip as I need to attend an interview at the embassy (see ‘Why am I going to Frankfurt?’ for more on that) which makes picking the date in January easier, but also means that I need to be packing warmer clothing than I’d like to.

Once I picked the dates I’d be travelling, I needed to decide when I’d be travelling on the day. This is largely down to which mode of transport you’re going to be using. I did briefly consider driving to Frankfurt as it’s only in Western Germany, but with petrol prices, crossing on the ferry and the weather across Europe this time of year, I thought it’s going to be much easier to fly. If it was another European destination (Paris, Brussels, Amsterdam or Lille) then I may have jumped on the train.

Getting the plane to Frankfurt does mean that my time of travel will be decided by the flights on the day. There are a few search engines to choose from when you’re looking for flights and I find the Google Flights usually come back with the biggest range and best prices. When you’ve picked your flight, do go to the airline website to see if you can get a better deal by booking with them directly.

Thankfully, with the new extensions to the London Underground, I can get to Heathrow fairly easily and I can wake up at a reasonable time for my mid-morning flight.

Once you’ve booked your flight, check out the airline website to book assistance that you need. You should find a section along the lines of ‘manage my bookings’ or something very similar. If you have any questions, pick up the phone and give the airline a call.

2.      What to take

It’s essential to spend a bit of time thinking about what you’re going to take when you’re going away. That’s true for anyone. As a wheelchair user, it just takes a little bit more consideration. How you’re going to carry things is also important. Check out my previous blog on ‘4 essentials for wheelchair carrying’.

When working on something that requires a bit of thought, my preference is to be very organised in my approach. I start by breaking what I’m taking into 4 categories, which are clothes, bathroom bits (including meds), wheelchair bits and documents.

Everything that you need to take will be dependent on where you’re going, what you’re going there for and what your personal needs are.

So for this trip, I’m thinking:

Clothes – lots of warm/waterproof clothing. My scuba diving trip to Egypt (my last trip abroad) will look very different to what I’m taking to Frankfurt. Both because of the type of clothing and my reason for going there. I’m not going to need my scuba equipment and imagine I’d get some funny looks if I turned up to the embassy wearing a snorkel!

Bathroom bits – toiletries and even though I’m only going for a long weekend, I prefer to take enough meds for a week or two (no need to risk running out).

Wheelchair kit – I’m taking my TriRide with me so will need to take the charger. I wouldn’t usually take anything for my manual chair as I’m confident in sourcing a repair at my destination or putting up with whatever goes wrong till I get back home. This will be your call on what makes you most comfortable.

Documents – usually this would include things like a passport, visas, maybe a bit of the local currency or at least some cash so you can change to the local currency when you arrive. A printed copy of your hotel address is a good back up should your phone run out of battery when you’re on route (also don’t forget to take an adapter so you can charge it). I’ll need a few more things at the embassy so need to remember those extra bits this trip.

Most insurance companies will offer cover for pre-existing medical conditions but it’s important to read the fine print to make sure that you’re going to get the cover you need. I’ve just renewed my home insurance covering my wheelchair and TriRide including up to 60 days of travel, so one less thing that I need to look for on my travel insurance.

3.      Where to stay

Wheelchair accessible accommodation can be something that’s a tricky area to navigate. No pun intended. Anything away from what you’re used to using at home will take a little getting used to. I know that it can feel a bit different for me when the bed is at a different height for example.

I’ve needed accessible accommodation for more than 16 years now. And in all fairness, I have seen things get better over time. Not to the point where it becomes at easy as it could be, but better is a good start.

Much like what you’ll need to take with you, there are a few things that everyone needs to think about when looking at where to stay – budget and location. So how much have you got to spend, where in (or out of) the city you want to be and how easy is it to get there? On top of that, you’ll want to know that the room will have everything you need.

There are a couple of websites that will scour through hotels in any given destination and if you’re travelling with friends or family then AirBnb is good to look at. Using AirBnb on your own can be expensive so I went back to my usual fist port of call, booking dot com.

Selecting the destination and filtering out those inaccessible places is easily done. I also find the map feature really useful to get an idea of where I’ll be in the city compared to things that I want to get to and how easy it will be to get to the hotel. Most of the options can be cancelled right up to the day before as well, which is handy should anything change.

When it comes to what I need to have at the hotel, the two things I look for (on top of it saying it’s accessible) is a level entrance which can usually be seen on Google Maps and that they have a lift so I know I can get to the room.

Time to get planning

It’s the start of a New Year and if you’ve not already got anything booked in then it’s a great time to start planning. I find that the planning for the journey can build the excitement and enjoyment of the trip itself.

Getting away doesn’t have to be for long and it doesn’t have to be far. Think about what you’d like to do and start planning. The greatest adventures are the ones we write ourselves.