A return to Switzerland – land of mountains, museums and moos! COMPLETED 12/4 - Page 79 - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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Sounds like a fun experience. I don't blame you for not feeling secure astride a cow. There is a reason horses are preferred for transport - their body type is better for sitting upon.
I'll take your word for it - certainly they're not quite as wide as our girls were..
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Sorry to hear about Mark's 'bonus experience' with the cows!!
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Even if you didn't ride for long, it was worth it just to get the photo of you on Erma!
Oh it was!
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I know what you mean, though, about feeling insecure. When I rode the elephant in S Africa I felt the same. It was amazing and wonderful, but I couldn't wait to get off! Poor Mark-- He got a bit too up-close and personal!
He did!
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How sweet are those animals, to be so patient with you and Mark being pushed up onto them? A lot of horses wouldn't put up with that.
They were very patient, but I think they're used to it. They knew the routes to take and I got the impression it's part of their lives, so they don't worry about it....
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I think it is so cool that you at least tempted to ride a cow! I would have been happy to walk beside the cow. Definitely a once in a lifetime opportunity!!
I think it is so cool that you at least tempted to ride a cow! I would have been happy to walk beside the cow. Definitely a once in a lifetime opportunity!!
what a different experience. I have never heard of riding cows before and I googled cow trekking and Switzerland was the top results.
I don't think that saddle looked very sturdy either and didn't it have stir ups for your feet? I couldn't do it with my feet hanging.
Saturday 7 September – part three: I think we might be in the Black Forest….
Soon we were back on the main road…
.. and literally a few miles later, we found the customs post between Switzerland and Germany. Yet again, just like our arrival in the country, we just drove through, as there was no-one there.
Sorry about the appalling quality of the photo. Unfortunately the camera picked up on the car windshield. It’s got lines on it, as it’s heated, which means it defrosts in literally seconds in the winter.
We entered Germany…
…and passed through another deserted customs booth. Every time we cross country borders, I can’t help but think how much this costs, and how much Europe saved when all the borders came down with the European Union. Of course, Switzerland isn’t a member of the EU, so its border controls remain, well what there are of them.
We were soon on the Autobahn, seeing cars doing crazy speeds with no speed limit. It’s fine if everyone is driving at roughly the same speed, but most people were being pretty sensible, so the prospect of pulling out in front of those crazies was not a pleasant one.
Before we knew it, we were coming off the Autobahn. Neither of us had realised that we’d have quite a drive ahead of us on single lane roads. The scenery was pretty enough…
We had a detour though one town, where one GPS tried to take us a quicker route, only to discover the road was closed.
Then we were heading on to a series of switchbacks…
In truth, this was once again a very picturesque route…
Yes that is a train you can see passing above the road
As we drove through one village after another, we started to realise we were going through the top end of the Black Forest region of Germany, which I hadn’t thought about at all. I’d just literally looked at the destination for the night, then we’d let the GPS sort the rest out, so this was a very unexpected treat.
Soon we were going back down the mountain, seeing lots more beautiful sights:
We got the impression that the villages around here depended on tourism, as we started to see signs that told us there was “late night shopping” (in English) next Friday night. Well, unfortunately we won’t be able to take advantage of that…
Finally we were back on a more straight piece of road, but still the beautiful countryside was coming…
It was when we ended up behind a tanker that things got a lot more frustrating, as we were slowed down a lot by that, but thankfully the Autobahn was beckoning again.
Oh wow, what a gorgeous route! And you still found cows. That clock building/store is cute. I so appreciate all the photos you share as I never know if I'll make it there someday!
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Ok honestly, this has got to be the coolest, whackiest thing you've ever done on any vacation, Chez! 
But then again, it's just totally me, isn't it? 
stirrups, which probably would have helped...
It’s fine if everyone is driving at roughly the same speed, but most people were being pretty sensible, so the prospect of pulling out in front of those crazies was not a pleasant one. 
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