Seeing Europe Through the Eyes of My Daughter.

Being blind or visually impaired does not have to mean an end to exploring the sights, sounds, history, people, and cultures of the world. It just means you get to share it with someone through their eyes. It is the sharing of travel experiences, whether sighted or not, that makes traveling enjoyable.
Ever since I was a teenager I’ve known all of life’s paths would eventually lead to darkness as my vision faded and the light left me behind. I’ve never let that knowledge be a barrier; rather, it’s been a motivation to do more with what I had while I had it. To that end, I took my first trip in 1981 at age 16 and rode my bike through Europe, and I fell in love with it. Since that inaugural excursion, I returned whenever work, time, and money permitted. With each trip over the years, the vision faded, but I made sure what I saw and the experiences I had were permanently ingrained in my memory, so even blind I could still see in my mind’s eye what genetics had taken from me.

Little did I know, years later when I thought my travels must end because there was nothing left to “see”; I would rediscover the joy of Europe again through my young daughter who had the enthusiasm and wide-eyed wonder I experienced on my first trip all those years ago. Experiences muted by age now have revitalized meaning when viewed by my child. Discoveries I now ignore or dismiss, such as graffiti on the walls throughout Athens were actually faascinating “art” that when viewed in the proper context, added to the experience, rather than detracting from it. Also, after I returned home and viewed her pictures/movies, which are more visible on my computer than in real life, I saw the vibrance and life of the places we visited that were somewhat lost to me at the time through the fog of my limited vision. Where I would have taken a picture of the architecture, she was snapping shots of graffiti, a random cat in a back alley of Hydra, or a candid shot of a street performer in Rome. There is no greater shared memory than asking your child what she see’s from the walls above Dubrovnik and hearing her describe the scene so you can see it also.
The purpose for this narration is to encourage others who may have a disability to travel and enjoy the experience for what it is, and if there are some physical limitations, perhaps you can still live the experience through whomever you are traveling with. Europe is not handicap friendly, but that does not have to stop you. Just “live” the experience through your travel partner or family. I may not have walked the canals of Venice at night, but nonetheless, I was there vicariously roaming Venice with my daughter. Albeit, I had to wait for her return to the hotel to tell me about it and then re-live what she saw, after the fact, at home when reviewing the photos taken on her walkabout. But the fact is, she took me where I could not go myself, yet I feel like we were there together. I’ve learned that whether blind; in a wheelchair, or some other impediment, Europe can be fun and perhaps even more enjoyed, when seeing it through someone elses eyes who shares that moment with you. My path has led down a tunnel without light at the end, but I am happy to have shared a different path through my daughters eyes.
I have been lucky. I’ve known my future and have made the most of it, and I hope to return to my travels again after my daughter grows up and starts her own life. While in Rome I tossed the obligatory coin in the Trevi fountain; however, I wished the return be for my daughter when she has a family, so her children can one day visit me and renew my journeys in Europe all over again through the eyes of the next generation. Blindness has not kept me from seeing Europe, instead it has renewed my sense of adventure and my desire to experience more of it. Maybe I can convince my daughter to see Spain for me….