He who has a why to live can bear almost any how.

Friedrich Nietzsche

We got onto the ferry early which was great. No queues and plenty of space to get everything organised to move up into the cabin. And what a pleasant surprise: Stena’s accessible cabin has to be recommended. Rarely are cabins that generously sized. Plenty of space to move the wheelchair around.

Although the ‘master’ requested our attendance, we decided that we didn’t need another horror movie and headed straight for breakfast.

We were off. On our way to Holyhead.

In the meantime, Pádraig’s sister was trying to complete the nearly impossible task of getting accessible tickets for the Coldplay gig in August of next year (!), sending us updates on her progress from number 202,577 in the queue to the point when, after a long hour of waiting, she finally succeeded.

Pádraig will be going to Coldplay. He was delighted.

From Holyhead, we drove to Hull and on to another ferry, which brought us overnight to Rotterdam.

Bramsche was our next overnight stop.

Instead of going up North straight away the next day, we stopped over at Made for Movement in Langenhagen close to Hanover for a few hours to meet their lead sales executive, a physiotherapist, who we had arranged to meet to try our the InnoWalk with Pádraig. While we were there, we also looked at some other devices the Norwegian company have on their books.

But the highlight was definitely the InnoWalk, a device inspired by the cross trainer we all know from the gym.

Pádraig trying the InnoWalk, a cross trainer developed in Norway, last week.

Pádraig really liked it, more than other devices he has been using. It has no harness so it’s more comfortable while all the weight is on your legs. It is a relatively new device and has few electronic gadgets attached to it. Not terribly sophisticated but with all the add-ons you’d need for movement and weight bearing. A perfect trainer.

Movement is life.

So is feeling your body.

There is a purpose and it goes way beyond the physical.

While we are still working on the how, and always will, we definitely and without a question have the why.