Skip to content
  • Home
  • About
  • Blog
    • Vanlife
    • Our Travels
    • Personal Ramblings
  • The Good and Bad Gallery
  • Instagram
  • Contact Me

Life in the Blurry Lane

Vanlife with a Visual Impairment

A white background with text and braille in dark blue. The text reads NCBI Working for People with Sight Loss. The braille translation is above this alongside an abstract image of an eye.

If you need support with your sightloss or the accessibility of your website, the National Council for the Blind of Ireland is a fantastic organisation to turn to. I have been a service user since childhood and still engage with them regularly. Find out more about all of their services on their website

Our Travels

  • An image of a glassy lake surrounded by snow capped mountains. The van is parked at the shore
    Europe in a Van Part 16 – Spain: Zamora, Cantabria, Candás, Reinosa, Torrelavega and Bilbao
    by Aoife
    March 14, 2023
    I can’t quite believe that this post is the last one about living fulltime in our van! Where did those nine months go?! We made the absolute most of our last week by cramming in all of our favourite things – sea, mountains, quaint towns […]
  • A lock and dam in a river. Blue aky above and mountains visible in the distance
    Europe in a Van Part 15 – Portugal: Praia da Barra, Porto and the Douro Valley
    by Aoife
    March 8, 2023
    Wine tasting, mattress purchasing and very rude neighbours all make it in to this weeks blog. From Nazaré, we continued up the coast, making our way towards Porto. After a short overnight there, we headed east into the Douro wine region where we spent the […]
  • A picture of aoifes legs resting on a footstool, overlooking a brown river with trees at the edges.
    Europe in a Van Part 13 – Spain: Gibraltar, Seville, Palmer de Troya and Setenil de las Bodegas
    by Aoife
    February 10, 2023
    Its been a while – and a lot has happened since we left Tarragona. Firstly, the travel reviews and itineraries have been given a name change! Secondly, we had a wonderful Christmas in Benalmadena, followed by a visit to the monkeys in Gibraltar and New […]
  • The rear end of the van parked beside the sea
    The Most and Least Accessible Places in Europe 2022
    by Aoife
    December 31, 2022
    Seeing as its New Years Eve and all, I thought it would be the perfect time to reflect on the most and least accessible places we’ve visited so far. We left Ireland in May and have completed 7 of our 11 month European road trip […]
  • A view out the back doors of the van showing blue sea, blue sky and hanging bulb lights
    Europe in a Van Part 12 – Spain: Valencia, Oliva and Tarragona
    by Aoife
    December 29, 2022
    Right, so full disclosure, I’m a bit behind on these posts. Between meeting family, driving around, Christmas festivities and some other bits and pieces, I’ve not had the time to sit down and write. I’m writing this from 2023, even though it will be published […]
  • A bright yellow sun setting over the sea. The sun is reflected in the blue sea below. The sky above is a cloudy blue.
    Europe in a Van Part 11 – France and Spain: Carcasonne and L’Estartit
    by Aoife
    November 22, 2022
    It’s been a quiet and relaxing few weeks here in Vanessa the van. Our previous few weeks were quite busy with pet sitting and lots of driving so we needed a while just to stop and enjoy our surroundings. Our hopes of visiting Andorra were […]
  • A bright yellow sun is setting over a dark blue sea and under a blue sky.
    Europe in a Van Part 10 – Germany, Luxembourg and France: Schlüchtern, Belling, Luxembourg and Saintes Maries-de-la-Mer
    by Aoife
    November 8, 2022
    We crammed some more alpacas into the last two weeks, and even added a dog, 2 cats and 4 chickens to the mix. They are unfortunately not literally crammed into the van with us. Instead we spent 5 days with them on their farm in […]
  • Aoife is wearing a black jacket and cap, sitting on a grey rock, which overlooks the countryside. The rocks look like the edge of a cliff
    Europe in a Van Part 9 – Germany and Czech Republic: Holle, Langelsheim, Schierke, Moosheim, Růžová and Karlovy Vary
    by Aoife
    October 25, 2022
    The packed title of this post is pretty representative of the last couple of weeks! Its only now that I’m reflecting on it that I realise how much we squeezed in. From an old watermill, to a cloudy mountain hike and even some alpacas (THEY’RE […]
  • Two bikes standing in front of a green hedge. One bike is black and the other is green. Both are dutch style with wide handlebars and low middle bars.
    Europe in a Van Part 8 – The Netherlands: Rotterdam, Utrecht, Leiden and Amsterdam
    by Aoife
    September 20, 2022
    Heavy hearted and sad is how I will leave The Netherlands. What a place! We did a good bit of travelling around to see as much as we could in the 5 weeks we’ve been here. Combine that with some dog and house sitting, we’ve […]
  • A white windmill surrounded by farm buildings and green shrubs. The sky above is bright blue
    Europe in a Van Part 7 – Belgium and The Netherlands: Pukkelpop 2022, Valkenswaard and Burgh-Haamstede
    by Aoife
    September 6, 2022
    It’s been a while since I’ve posted an itinerary and review and we’ve been pretty buy since we left Marburg! This post is a bit of a mixture of a few things – my first music festival, some show jumping, crossing country borders over 17 […]
  • A very large brown and red brick gothic church with a grey slated roof. There are many pointed towers and turrets. A large green tree stands in front of the building. The sky above is grey and cloudy
    Europe in a Van Part 6 – Germany: Marburg
    by Aoife
    August 23, 2022
    Marburg – a stunning town this was, from the architecture to the accessibility to the people. I didn’t want to leave and I’ll forever want to go back. Marburg is known as a “blindenstadt” which is a town built to make life as easy as […]
  • Aoife is walking down a road with grsy fields on either ide. The sun in setting in the background causing a bright orange and pale blue sky. the dark outline of trees can also be seen in the background. Aoife is wearing a black jumper, grey trousers and white runners
    How to Explore a New Place Alone with a Visual Impairment
    by Aoife
    August 16, 2022
    Over the last few weeks, I’ve spent a bit of time exploring places on my own. I went into Zurich city, visited Wilhelma Zoo in Stuttgart and completed the Marburg800 Discovery Trail. At home in Ireland, I am very independent and regularly go it alone […]
  • A view over Lake Zurich of blue water, blue skies and mountains in the background. The tops of houses and buildings can be seen in the foreground
    Europe in a Van Part 5 – italy and Switzerland: Cannobio and Zurich
    by Aoife
    August 9, 2022
    The time has come, I finally get to award an accessibility score of 5! I wondered if this day would ever come, and to my delight it has! This weeks blog post is about a couple of nights in Cannobio Italy and our 2.5 week […]
  • A view out of the back doors of the van. The doors are wide open showing grey mountains and blue skies up close. There is a hanging potted plant in a macrame pot holder in the middle of the doors. A floral covered pillow is at the bottom of the picture
    Europe in a Van Part 4 – Italy: Courmayeur, Varese, Carnate and Monza
    by Aoife
    July 19, 2022
    It is very nearly 2 months since we left Ireland and our apartment for 10 months in a van, which is incredibly hard to believe. Its like we’ve simultaneously been away for ages and for no time at all. Here are weeks 7 and 8 […]
  • A blue river is running through the middle of this picture with a bright blue sky in the background. There are mountainside buildings on the right and mountains visible in the background
    Europe in a Van Part 3 – France: Sisteron, Grenoble and Annecy
    by Aoife
    July 5, 2022
    Weeks 5 and 6 of our France travel Itinerary and accessibility blog are here. Despite what my last post said, we are still in France and have no plans to go to Geneva just yet. We did make it to the French Alps which are […]
  • An image looking over a harbour. There is a white sail boat in the mid ground. On the left, an outline of a cliff face can be seen. The water is dark blue, and the sky is a lighter blue. The picture is taken at dusk.
    Europe in a Van Part 2 – France: Beaune, Lyon, Cassis, Saint Raphael and Fréjus
    by Aoife
    June 21, 2022
    We’ve made it to weeks 3 and 4 of our tour in Europe, and we’re still in France. Since leaving Paris, we hit up Beaune, Lyon, Cassis, Saint Raphael and Fréjus, so we’ve been busy! Lets get straight to it. Highlights and lowlights Highlights We […]
  • A pale brown dirt road is flanked by green grass on both sides. The sky above is bright blue. Black bike handlebars with a bell can be seen in the bottom right
    Europe in a Van Part 1 – France: Omaha Beach, Maisons-Laffitte, Paris and Disneyland Paris
    by Aoife
    June 16, 2022
    We have arrived! Our Grand European Tour has finally begun and this is the first travel itinerary and campsite accessibility review. I’m going to write these in two week blocks so I can give a good bit of detail without making the posts into a […]
  • Aoife is wearing grey trousers, a black jacket and a black cap. Aoife is walking down a tarmac road which has green fields and bushes on both sides Grey mountains can be seen in the distance. The sky is cloudy with some little blue patches.
    Ring of Kerry May 2022
    by Aoife
    June 8, 2022
    As a test run before we drove off into the European sunset, we explored the beautiful South West of Ireland. We drove around the Ring of Kerry, starting in Killarney, and then moved Glenbeg and Glenross.
  • This image is taken from a standing position, looking down onto my feet in black pointed boots. You can see the end of my grey coat also. I am standing on a set of steps. Each one is pale grey concrete with a bright yellow painted edge. The ground beneath the steps is red brick.
    Accessibility Scale according to my Life in the Blurry Lane
    by Aoife
    June 8, 2022
    As we travel around Europe and review campsites and experiences (such as tours, theme parks etc), I thought an easy way to discuss their accessibility aspects is to use a 5 point scale, 5 being the highest score a site or place can get. The […]
A white background with text and braille in dark blue. The text reads NCBI Working for People with Sight Loss. The braille translation is above this alongside an abstract image of an eye.

If you need support with your sightloss or the accessibility of your website, the National Council for the Blind of Ireland is a fantastic organisation to turn to. I have been a service user since childhood and still engage with them regularly. Find out more about all of their services on their website

  • Instagram
  • Email
© 2022 - 2023 Life in the Blurry Lane. All Rights Reserved
Proudly powered by WordPress
Theme: AeonAccess by AeonWP
Go to top
Page Zoom
Contrast
Accessibility by WAH
  • Home
  • About
  • Blog
    • Vanlife
    • Our Travels
    • Personal Ramblings
  • The Good and Bad Gallery
  • Instagram
  • Contact Me