On the road (3) A (hopefully) sunny September road trip to Spain COMPLETED - Page 9 - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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.
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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.
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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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Cool water effect. At first I was thinking - huh? What's the point of this? Only the French would do something so "artys". Then as the pictures progressed I thought How cool. to go from misty to reflecting to actaullt looking like a little lake was there. Neat!
What a neat area! Love all the pictures with the reflections in the water - so nice! You must have been beside yourself when you saw the cow displays!!
__________________
Stacey
Why do these kids look so pathetic?
Find out in: A New Grade, A New House, and A Surprise!Final Thoughts 01/30
Wow, love the water mirror - especially when it was all "smoky"!
Chicago did cows - I actually have a small desk-sized replica of one from the exhibit, plus the book Cows on Parade Chicago. Here in DC, they did, what else? Elephants & Donkeys! They also did pandas at some point - after the birth of our baby panda, I think. I love those kinds of exhibits - some of them are so cleverly decorated!
Oh my goodness, I would've loved to have seen the donkey one and the panda one!
What a neat area! Love all the pictures with the reflections in the water - so nice! You must have been beside yourself when you saw the cow displays!!
Sunday 5 September – part three: you don’t usually see those in a circus these days... :
Once that display had finished, we wandered along one of the many parks by the rivers, meeting some more members of the Cow Parade on the way.
We then headed up the Esplanade des Quinconces, which is lined with trees, with one of the city’s tramlines running through it. This has to be one of the best tram systems we’ve seen anywhere. According to information I read, the first line was only put in in 2004, which probably accounts for why it looks so modern. It’s nice to see a system that runs on electricity and doesn’t need overhead cables, which always make cities look so messy.
As we walked up, we saw there was a circus, spotting a donkey and a zebra (yes, we did a double take when we spotted those two! ) on the way. We were going to go in, until we realised they were charging for the privilege, so we changed our minds. It really was like stepping back into the past, seeing camels and elephants there. There is no way a circus would turn up in the UK with animals, they’d just be hounded out by animal rights protestors.
We headed to the Monument aux Girondins. This fountain is in the form of statues, which symbolise the Triumph of Concorde and the Republic, with the Statue of Liberty at the top, breaking free of her shackles. It’s a beautiful piece of work.
Sunday 5 September – part four: a grand building, but disused.....
Our next stop was to find the tourism office, as this is where we would be picking up our wine tour later in the day. That done, we met another couple of members of the Cow Parade.
Then it was off to see the Grand Theatre. From the outside, it’s a stunning building, but despite all the books I’d read saying that they regularly did guided tours, we couldn’t see any evidence of it. I heard another English group say that the doors to the building hadn’t been opened for some time and that sounded about right. There was a chandelier on the floor through one door that looked like it had broken. Mark tried to get a photo of it, but sadly it didn’t come out.
I took a few minutes’ breather, as I cannot begin to tell you how hot it was by now. It wasn’t even midday and it must have been easily into the high 80s. The forecasts had all suggested that these would be the hottest day of our vacation and it seemed they were right.
After that break, we walked up to see the Eglise Notre-Dame, complete with its own cow.
Look what we saw on the way up to the church!
After seeing a tour group go into the building next door, we followed them in and saw the city hall.
From there, it was back down to the Grand Theatre and then I figured that we’d walk across to see the city’s cathedral. I’ll be honest, this was a lot further away than I thought it would be. A kindly French woman even helped us at one point, as we were studying our maps. I must admit though that it was a very pleasant walk, with no traffic around. It was slightly freaky at times though, as you’re just not used to walking through major cities and literally hearing nothing, apart from the odd bike and other people talking. It’s an odd feeling.
Next: AC/DC cow living with the city’s government...
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) on the way. We were going to go in, until we realised they were charging for the privilege, so we changed our minds. It really was like stepping back into the past, seeing camels and elephants there. There is no way a circus would turn up in the UK with animals, they’d just be hounded out by animal rights protestors. 
cows! The tramline is really neat!
That done, we met another couple of members of the Cow Parade. 
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