On the road (3) A (hopefully) sunny September road trip to Spain COMPLETED - Page 15 - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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!
Welcome! We're happy you've found the PassPorter Community -- the friendliest place to plan your vacation to Walt Disney World, Disney Cruise Line, Disneyland, and the world in general! You are now viewing the PassPorter Message Board Community as a guest, which gives you limited access. As our guest, feel free to browse our messages by selecting the forum you want to visit from the list below.
To post messages and ask questions, join our FREE community today and you'll get access to tools and resources not available to guests, such as our vacation countown timers, "living" avatars, private messaging system, database searches, downloads, and a special PassPorter discount code. Registration is fast, simple, and completely free. Just click the Join Our Community link.
If you think you've already joined, log in below now. If you don't remember your member name or password, please visit our Member Name and Password Recovery page. You are also welcome to contact us.
The thing that really stuck with me though was that, sadly very French smell, of urine, which actually followed you a good way into the church. It says something for the respect people have for religious buildings.
EWWW! Maybe they were trying to create the mood of what it might have smelled like back in the 12th and 13th centuries? Just gross!
Monday 6 September – part three: a new country and new scenery!
Biarritz came into fashion in the late 19th century, when sea bathing became the thing to do. It was first put on the map by Emperor Napoleon III and Empress Eugenie and then the famous people just kept coming, including Charlie Chaplin, Britain’s King Edward VII and then his son King Edward VIII. Today the big draw here is still the Grande Plage (big beach), which stretches out in front of the town’s casino. As we pulled up to take some photos, I could see why it had been such a big draw all those years ago and why people still come here today. Not only is it a beautiful beach and a wonderful town, but I really liked all the rocks off the coastline, which added a bit more charm to the place.
We followed the coast road for a little while, stopping to get a few more shots along the way.
As we came out of Biarritz, I noticed that the road signs were now in two languages, French and the Basque language, which bears no resemblance whatsoever to any European language I’ve ever learnt. :
Soon we were back on the motorway and heading rapidly towards toll booths and then the Spanish border.
Almost as soon as we crossed the border, the landscape changed dramatically and suddenly we had sweeping hills on either side of the road, with views reminiscent of what we had seen before in Switzerland. This was certainly not what we had expected to see here. : A look at the guidebooks showed that none of them particularly ranked this countryside, but driving through it, it was hard to work out why, as it was stunning. I think it certainly made for a more pleasant drive for Mark with at least something to look at finally.
Something else that made the drive much more pleasant was the fact that there had been a lot of new roads built recently, so while poor old Tim was completely lost at times, we had the benefit of nice straight roads with long tunnels through the mountains, instead of the winding and bending roads that we would’ve had to have gone on otherwise. Again, it reminded us of Switzerland, in terms of the engineering marvels that had been created here, with roads just ploughing through any hill or mountain.
I saw rocks in the water off the beach like that on the Oregon/California coast and it just thrilled me. That just makes for beautiful pictures!
Those rolling hills/mountains did make for a beautiful drive. I love driving through country like that, although I'm probably a bit dangerous, craning my neck all around, trying to see the best view!!
PassPorter's Free-Book to Walt Disney World It’s hard to believe anything is free at Walt Disney World; but there are actually a number of things you can get or do for little to no cost. This e-book documents over 200 free or cheap tips to do before you go and after you arrive. You could save a considerable amount of money following these tips. Perhaps more importantly; you can discover overlooked attractions and little-known details most people whiz by on their way to spend money. Click here to see free sample pages from the e-book! Get this popular e-book free of extra charges when you join the PassPorter's Club for as little as $4.95. A club pass includes access to all our other e-books; e-worksheets; super-size photos; and more! This e-book is also available for separate purchase in the PassPorter Online Store for just $5.95.
Monday 6 September – part four: how do we get there?
Eventually, we were past the hills and the scenery changed almost suddenly into a mainly barren landscape that was reminiscent of the drive from Las Vegas to California. Unlike that though, there were patches of colour, where sunflowers would be growing, with the odd trees around, so there was still variety in the landscape to look at, which was pleasant enough.
About two hours into the drive, we decided to stop and have our Carrefour lunch, having found a service area. At first glance, it appeared to be quite sparse with facilities, offering just a gas station, fast food place and some places to park up, which is where we headed for. The prawn salad:
... was very nice, but the second we opened the terrine, we opted out, it smelt so strong that neither of us could face it. : Instead, we each had a bag of chips and the fruit and then I set out to explore where I thought the restrooms were, having seen a number of women walk in and walk out. My instincts were right and they were much nicer than most of the restrooms we’d encountered in France, with a seat on the toilet (trust me, a novelty after France! ) and no stench coming from them. We’d both stopped earlier to use the toilets at the shopping centre, which was home to Carrefour, and although there was no charge for it, the facilities weren’t great. Mark commented that he works on many sewage works and the stench in there was much worse than anything on a sewage works!
All fully rested, eaten and refreshed, we set off on our way again and it wasn’t long before we were reaching our next stop of Burgos.
This was founded in 884 and was the capital of the united kingdoms of Castille and Lyon from 1073 until it lost that honour to Vallodolid in 1492. During the 15th and 16th centuries, the city grew rich from the wool trade and used much of the money it made from that to invest in the buildings seen here today.
San Miguel (beer) factory
Getting to see those buildings proved to be far from easy, as we didn’t seem to be able to get to any of the roads we wanted. Sounds familiar? I was thinking that it was a replay of Bordeaux. We ended up travelling along the other bank of the river that runs through the city and we saw the attractions that I wanted to see, so Mark kindly pulled up into an area that said you could wait for 10 minutes outside an hotel and off I went.
About This Page: 
Just gross!
Holly: 
Like
Thank
Pixie Dust
PassPorter Guide Author
: 
) and no stench coming from them. We’d both stopped earlier to use the toilets at the shopping centre, which was home to Carrefour, and although there was no charge for it, the facilities weren’t great. Mark commented that he works on many sewage works and the stench in there was much worse than anything on a sewage works! 
I was thinking that it was a replay of Bordeaux. 
We ended up travelling along the other bank of the river that runs through the city and we saw the attractions that I wanted to see, so Mark kindly pulled up into an area that said you could wait for 10 minutes outside an hotel and off I went. 
Glad you found better ones! LOL!
Katie's graduation
Linear Mode
