On the road (1) – Six countries, nine days COMPLETED - Page 43 - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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Thursday 25 March – part four: do you really think we’d cross the border to buy chocolate?
We headed back to the car and back out on the road, knowing that we had to find some fuel fairly soon. We programmed Tim and set off.
As we got into Kreutzlingen, we passed one road and noticed there was a border crossing back into Switzerland.
Down the next road Tim took us down, we came to another such crossing. Oh my goodness, I think the guys there thought all their Christmases had come at once when they saw our car! They asked us in German something and I just looked like a scared rabbit in headlights and eventually he asked us in English, where we’d been, for how long and why. In truth, my brain was trying to compute the German and failing miserably.
They asked for our passports and driving licence. As the latter was in Mark’s wallet in his back pocket, he had to get out of the car to get it out, at which point, the border guard got very upset and told him to stay in the car and Mark had to explain what he was doing. While the guy disappeared off with those, we were quizzed about whether things were cheaper in Switzerland or Germany. We both thought this could be a trick question, so didn’t say too much.
The next thing we had to do was open up the boot (trunk) and open up the suitcases. They got very excited when they saw the laptop, but Mark explained we’d brought that from home. Then they looked at the Swiss chocolate and Mark explained that had come from Switzerland. Good grief men, do you think we’d buy German chocolate over Swiss chocolate?
Finally, everything in order, our passports were returned to us (they wouldn’t stamp them for us, which was a shame ) and we were on our way. It was so freaky, the way that the border literally cut this town in two...
Fortunately, we found some fuel not too much further down the road and it would turn out to be much cheaper than both Germany and Austria, so I’m glad we filled up when we did. The self payment took some working out, but fortunately, as soon as I put the credit card in, it started to display English, which was a relief to me!
A true sign you’re near the border – prices are displayed here in both Swiss francs (first one) and Euros (second one), as you’re so near Germany
We were soon on our way again, following the road around Lake Bodensee.
More vineyards
Our first stop was Romanshorn, where you can catch a car ferry over to Friedrichshafen in Germany.
It was a very odd place. Beautiful, don’t get me wrong, but it was packed with young men in very flash cars. It just didn’t seem like the sort of place for that sort of thing, especially bearing in mind as it was late morning on a weekday...
From there, we drove to Rorschach, near the Austrian border, and got a few photos down by the lake, once we’d waited for the train to come through, which ran right in front of the car park we were aiming at.
Mark got his own photo from the driving seat of these local teenagers enjoying the view!
I guess all countries have those border patrol guys that just seem to take their job a bit too seriously... well... depending on how much of that Swiss chocolate you had in the trunk (boot)!!
I laughed at the picture of the teenagers. Like Wendy said, teenage boys are the same worldwide! That was a funny picture!
Isn't that something about the border crossing? My goodness, what on earth was that about? Guess they were bored to tears and needed SOMETHING to get excited about. Bummer that they wouldn't stamp your passports though.
As usual, love all the photos! I can't wait to get over there!!!
Isn't that something about the border crossing? My goodness, what on earth was that about? Guess they were bored to tears and needed SOMETHING to get excited about. Bummer that they wouldn't stamp your passports though.
I can just imagine how boring patrolling some of the borders must be.
Mindau Island, Germany was just breath taking! I especially the photos from in the cathedrel WOW! I think the border patrol guys would have had me in tears .
The gardens were beautiful, what amazing colors. I loved all the eggs....it really looked like an amazing place to visit. Had to laugh at the picture of teh teenage boys, guess it is a universal thing that they just forget to "pick up their pants"
Thursday 25 March – part five: an Austrian encounter and a first for me!
We headed out and, a few miles up the road, we came across the border point between Switzerland and Austria. Fortunately no issues on either side of the border at this crossing!
A little surreal.... And here’s an airport! The A on the road sign signs for Austria! The border crossing.... And now we’re in Austria!
I was really excited to finally be in Austria, albeit very briefly, as it was the only country out of all those we’d be visiting that I hadn’t yet been to. It would be a very short stay of something like 20 minutes, before we’d be back into Germany again. As a result, we took the non-motorway roads, as Austria operates a similar system to Switzerland and you have to buy a pass to use the country’s motorways. Of course, for us, it just wasn’t worth it. :
And the D on this sign stands for Deutschland or Germany, showing how soon we’d be leaving Austria again! And an Austrian cow!
We passed through Bregenz and, again, got some lovely views of Lake Bodensee.
A cable car in operation
Then, before we knew it, with no pomp or circumstance at all, we were in Germany. It was so hard to tell that you were changing countries that I missed the sign to say you were now in Germany, but I did manage to get a photo of what we assume was once a border crossing....
It didn’t take too long from there to get into Lindau Island, which has so many historic buildings that the whole area’s been listed as a historic monument.
We parked up and wandered into the town and were bowled over by what we found. My goodness, they were right about there being so many historic buildings. Everywhere we turned, we found more and more. It was beautiful.
A quick walk around the place and it was time to head back into the car. We stopped off briefly at their harbour:
We drove to Wasserburg, one of the villages along the lake and got some photos there.
We carried on driving:
A neat sculpture on a roundabout we passed
Our next stop was going to be Friedrichshafen, which if you were paying attention, was the place where the car ferry from Switzerland runs to. We were planning on visiting the Zeppelin Museum there and, as we got into the town, I could see why the guidebooks didn’t mention anything else apart from that museum being there. The architecture was very modern and there wasn’t much to commend it at all. As a result, no photos.
We couldn’t find any parking near to the Zeppelin Museum at all. I guess that’s where our luck on that front ran out this trip. It didn’t help that it was literally right next door to the car ferry and I didn’t think parking down there was a good plan. : The neighbouring car park was packed, with lots of people waiting for spaces, so Mark took the decision to give up and move on.
By the way, don't worry if you don't see an update from me in the morning. I'm working all night at our election count tonight, so I may not be on the boards tomorrow until much later in the day.
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PassPorter Guide Author
They asked us in German something and I just looked like a scared rabbit in headlights and eventually he asked us in English, where we’d been, for how long and why. In truth, my brain was trying to compute the German and failing miserably. 
The self payment took some working out, but fortunately, as soon as I put the credit card in, it started to display English, which was a relief to me! 
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Pixie Dust
Melanie
all the pictures of the gardens and the flowers...beautiful!
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