On the road (1) – Six countries, nine days COMPLETED - Page 24 - PassPorter - A Community of Walt Disney World, Disneyland, Disney Cruise Line, and General Travel Forums
As of January 1, 2019, we have closed our forums. This is a decision we did not come to lightly, but it is necessary. The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk. The server software itself must be updated, and it cannot be without removing the forums.
So it is with a heavy heart that we say goodbye to our long-running forums. They came online in 2000 and brought together so many wonderful Disney fans. We had friendships form, careers launch, couples marry, children born ... all because of this amazing community.
Thank you to each of you who were a part of this community. You made it possible.
And a very special thank you to our Guides (moderators), past and present, who kept our forums a happy place to be. You are the glue that held everything together, and we are forever grateful to you. Thank you aliceinwdw, Caldercup, MrsM, WillCAD, Fortissimo, GingerJ, HiddenMickey, CRCrazy, Eeyoresmom, disneyknut, disneydani, Cam22, chezp, WDWfan, Luvsun, KMB733, rescuesk, OhToodles!, Colexis Mom, lfredsbo, HiddenMickey, DrDolphin, DopeyGirl, duck addict, Disneybine, PixieMichele, Sandra Bostwick, Eeyore Tattoo, DyanKJ130, Suzy Q'Disney, LilMarcieMouse, AllisonG, Belle*, Chrissi, Brant, DawnDenise, Crystalloubear, Disneymom9092, FanOfMickey, Goofy4Goofy, GoofyMom, Home4us123, iamgrumpy, ilovedisney247, Jennifer2003, Jenny Pooh, KrisLuvsDisney, Ladyt, Laughaholic88, LauraBelle Hime, Lilianna, LizardCop, Loobyoxlip, lukeandbrooksmom, marisag, michnash, MickeyMAC, OffKilter_Lynn, PamelaK, Poor_Eeyore, ripkensnana, RobDVC, SHEANA1226, Shell of the South, snoozin, Statelady01, Tara O'Hara, tigger22, Tink and Co., Tinkerbelz, WDWJAMBA, wdwlovers, Wendyismyname, whoSEZ, WildforWD, and WvuGrrrl. You made the magic.
We want to personally thank Sara Varney, who coordinated our community for many years (among so many other things she did for us), and Cheryl Pendry, our Message Board Manager who helped train our Guides, and Ginger Jabour, who helped us with the PassPorter-specific forums and Live! Guides. Thank you for your time, energy, and enthusiasm. You made it all happen.
There are other changes as well.
Why? Well, the world has changed. And change with it, we must. The lyrics to "We Go On" for IllumiNations say it best:
We go on to the joy and through the tears
We go on to discover new frontiers
Moving on with the current of the years.
We go on
Moving forward now as one
Moving on with a spirit born to run
Ever on with each rising sun.
To a new day, we go on.
It's time to move on and move forward.
PassPorter is a small business, and for many years it supported our family. But the world changed, print books took a backseat to the Internet, and for a long time now it has been unable to make ends meet. We've had to find new ways to support our family, which means new careers and less and less time available to devote to our first baby, PassPorter.
But eventually, we must move on and move forward. It is the right thing to do.
So we are retiring this newsletter, as we simply cannot keep up with it. Many thanks to Mouse Fan Travel who supported it all these years, to All Ears and MousePlanet who helped us with news, to our many article contributors, and -- most importantly -- to Sara Varney who edited our newsletter so wonderfully for years and years.
And we are no longer charging for the Live Guides. If you have a subscription, it's yours to keep for the lifetime of the Live Guides at no additional cost. The Live Guides will stay online, barring server issues and technical problems, for all of 2019.
That said, PassPorter is not going away. Most of the resources will remain online for as long as we can support them, and after that we will find ways to make whatever we can available. PassPorter means a great deal to us, and to many of you, and we will do our best to keep it alive in whatever way we can. Our server costs are high, and they'll need to come out of our pockets, so in the future you can expect some changes so we can bring those costs down.
Thank you, thank you, thank you for your amazing support over the years. Without you, there's no way us little guys could have made something like this happen and given the "big guys" a run for their money. PassPorter was consistently the #3 guidebook after the Unofficial and Official guides, which was really unheard of for such a small company to do. We ROCKED it thanks to you and your support and love!
If you miss us, you can still find some of us online. Sara started a new blog at DisneyParkPrincess.com -- I strongly urge you to visit and get on her mailing list. She IS the Disney park princess and knows Disney backward and forward. And I am blogging as well at JenniferMaker.com, which is a little craft blog I started a couple of years ago to make ends meet. You can see and hear me in my craft show at https://www.youtube.com/c/jennifermaker . Many PassPorter readers and fans are on Facebook, in groups they formed like the PassPorter Trip Reports and PassPorter Crafting Challenge (if you join, just let them know you read about it in the newsletter). And some of our most devoted community members started a forum of their own at Pixie Dust Lane and all are invited over.
So we encourage you to stay in touch with us and your fellow community members wherever works best for you!
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There’s a small stone pier that leads out there and, with the rain coming down, we headed out there, with the Jet d’Eau adding to the rain with every step we took. Mark got much further than I did, with the help of an umbrella to battle against the water coming down on him.
Typically, as we headed back along the stone pier, the rain stopped and the sky began to lighten. It’s amazing how quickly and drastically the weather can change here.
We got back in the car and headed for our next attraction, the Jardin Anglais and more specifically the famous floral clock at the entrance to it. Mark was able to pull over for a second and I was able to jump out and get some photos before we had to make a quick getaway.
Due to a wrong turn somewhere along the line, it took a long time for us to get back to the old town to see the city’s cathedral.
After a couple of wrong turns, we finally got there and found a parking spot. Great so far, except you had to pay for the parking and we had no coins whatsoever on us. We only had Swiss franc notes on us. Ok, no problem, we’ll just change it at a local shop or restaurant... except we wouldn’t, as everywhere appeared to be closed. It was so odd. Honestly, it was like city of the dead, yet there were cars everywhere. Mark speculated that they had to belong to residents, as they couldn’t belong to anyone using the shops or restaurants, as they were all closed.
Without any coins to pay for parking, we drove round for a while, then Mark kindly stopped for me and I nipped out to get some photos of it.
Then it was out of the city centre and off towards the United Nations area. To be honest, all of Geneva feels like the United Nations. It’s home to a huge range of international organisations and we spotted one or two along the way.
Nearby, we found the Palais des Nations, the home to the UN building in Geneva.
And it’s certainly got a nice selection of flags and a very odd chair – and yes, it is meant to just have the three legs, even though it looked like it had been the unfortunate victim of an arson attack. It’s actually called Broken Chair, fittingly enough, and is a protest against landmines.
With the rain once again threatening and indeed it started the second we got back in the car, we headed back to the hotel. We were both getting hungry and headed for the restaurants at the hotel, but neither were open. One appeared to only open for breakfast and lunch at the weekend, which was a bit odd, and the other one, L’Olivo, which served up Italian cuisine and specialised in pasta dishes, didn’t open until 7.00. We had another 45 minutes to wait. We walked down and took a look at the swimming pool and then headed back to the room to wait for the restaurant to open.
At dot on 7.00, we headed down there and were amongst the first to be seated. Our waiter tried very hard with us. He told us he only had “a bit of English”, but in all honesty, it was much better than my “bit of French”. Between us, we made it fine.
The tree we sat near to, complete with various quotes in French
The first surprise was the wine list, with a number of wines from Geneva and other parts of Switzerland. I never knew that Switzerland was noted for its wine, but I did dimly remember reading somewhere that Swiss wines generally weren’t exported outside the country. I opted for a rose wine from Geneva and Mark also followed suit and very nice it was too.
For appetiser, I went for the pumpkin and chestnut soup, as I was intrigued by the sound of it and I was even more intrigued by the appearance of it. I didn’t mix it up, as I enjoyed being able to sample bits from each side.
Mark’s was just as wonderfully presented. He went for the veal carpaccio and seemed to enjoy it, although he commented it was a little salty.
That was also my feeling about the bread that they served up for us and that probably explains how we got through two bottles of water for dinner. Mind you, it also probably had something to do with the fact that we hadn’t drunk very much all day as well...
For main course, I went for the degustation (or tasting) of their crab and king prawn pasta and I’m glad I did opt for the smaller portion, as there was no way I could eat anymore than this. It may not look like very much on the plate, but my goodness, it was rich and there’s no way I could’ve eaten a full portion. The flavours blended together beautifully.
Mark went for the meatballs and pasta and again found this dish to be a bit on the salty side.
The bill came to 146CHF (Swiss francs in case you’re wondering, yes the Swiss are very different and, like the UK, they don’t use the Euro either), which is about $140. Pricey I know, but it was very good.
L’Olivo:
Appetiser 8½ 8
Entree 9 8
Service 9 9½
Atmosphere 9 8½
Value for money 8 8
Average score: 8.55
With dinner done and our stomachs very much full, it was time to call an end to another day. We headed back to the room and settled down to watch a very good selection of BBC channels, including both BBC 1 and BBC 2, which we were very impressed to see on the channel line-up. A much better selection than the last couple of nights.
Today we drove 152 miles. The weather today was mainly dry and cloud with temperatures in the high 50s, with just a bit of rain. The best thing today was visiting Annecy. The worst thing today was the panic I had that the gondola was closed. The funniest thing today was “I don’t know any Swiss”. Today we tried visiting Geneva And the result was it’s a very cosmopolitan city, but was a bit dead when we saw it. The most magical moment today was riding the cable car at Grenoble.
Now there's an idea! If you do ever come over, we'd definitely come and meet you for the weekend.
Now, how did I know you would like that idea? OK, I've added it to my "bucket list": I will meet Cheryl and Mark on one side or the other of the ocean before that "Great Passporter Meet in the Sky"!
Bummer everything was closed and you couldn't park. When you don't need change, you have a pocket full of it, when you need it, you can't find any! I bet that cathedral would have been interesting inside, too.
Holy smokes batman!! Is that a typo? $140 for dinner?? :jawdrop?
Whoa, I guess Europe will heave a giant sigh of relief in knowing that this American won't be coming to visit. I knew you had warned me before about meals being pricey but I didn't really realize just how much!
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Annecy is beautiful! Quaint little town.
Yep, my friend who lived in Koln said it drove her nuts that everything closed on Sundays in Germany, I guess in Switzerland too.
What a balcony at your hotel room! And what a restaurant bill!!!
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I fell several days behind on your trip report, but I am all caught up now. I love the pictures of the places you have seen. What wonderful memories to have. The catherals were jsut beautiful. I am surprised how much you pay in tolls for use of the roads. I guess we do here too for some of our Highways, but bou it looks like you are getting nickeled and dimed as you go along. Did I miss out on "Tim" Is it the name you gave your GPS? or is it the brand name ?
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Now, how did I know you would like that idea? OK, I've added it to my "bucket list": I will meet Cheryl and Mark on one side or the other of the ocean before that "Great Passporter Meet in the Sky"!
Holy smokes batman!! Is that a typo? $140 for dinner?? :jawdrop?
Whoa, I guess Europe will heave a giant sigh of relief in knowing that this American won't be coming to visit. I knew you had warned me before about meals being pricey but I didn't really realize just how much!
That's about right. No typo - don't forget, it does depend on exchange rates. Whether the Swiss franc is doing well against the dollar, I don't know. : That could account for it. For us, because we get a lot of Swiss francs to the pound, it worked out a reasonable price.
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It was so odd. Honestly, it was like city of the dead, yet there were cars everywhere. Mark speculated that they had to belong to residents, as they couldn’t belong to anyone using the shops or restaurants, as they were all closed. 
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If you do ever come over, we'd definitely come and meet you for the weekend. 
OK, I've added it to my "bucket list": I will meet Cheryl and Mark on one side or the other of the ocean before that "Great Passporter Meet in the Sky"! 
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