Sampling Belgian chocolate in Bruges COMPLETED 6/2 - Page 6 - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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.
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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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I must say you can see the changes in style on the Church, just amazing. The horse drawn carriages are just lovely. The different styles of the buildings makes for a quaint little square.
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Tuesday 20 May – part eight: what do you mean, final call in nine minutes?
We saw an entrance to somewhere on our right as we walked past, and decided to head inside, and I’m so glad we did, as completely unexpectedly, we found ourselves in Site Oud Sint Jan Bruges. Now, believe it or not (and I have to say when I found out, I was a bit shocked!), it’s a conference and event centre that’s located in a historic hospital from the 19th century. There’s been a hospital on this site since the Middle Ages, but that history came to an end in 1976 when the hospital was decommissioned. Fortunately, it was restored and it’s been in its current usage since 1989.
When we were done with wandering, we found ourselves back by a canal again…
Now it was here I made a mistake. I couldn’t see any paths going south by the canal, so we walked through a car park instead, and thought we saw some bits of the city that seemed familiar from earlier on, so we figured we were in the right area. Well, we weren’t. We were essentially heading north a little and then directly west to the edge of the city, which is bordered by a ring road. We found ourselves in an area of the city that’s dominated by a fun fair, and it just didn’t go with the rest of Bruges at all.
We kept following the ring road down, and eventually started to come out of the fun fair, which just seemed to go on forever. Finally, we started to see familiar sights, and knew we were getting close to the station. However, by now we must’ve walked 15 minutes since we left the Bejinhof. I realised when I checked the map later that we’d literally down about three sides of a square. In fact, later on I put in all our walking into Google Maps to see how far we’d gone. I didn’t quite account for everything, but I reckon we easily walked four miles in total! As Debbie said when I texted her, “that means I can have a bit more chocolate then!”
Back at the car park, we paid up, and headed out. By now, it was about 4:20pm, and unfortunately we hit the rush hour, and crawled for the first couple of miles. As we did, the rain started to come down. We must’ve missed it by about 10 or 15 minutes I think. We’d done exceptionally well with the weather today.
Soon we were back on the motorway, and after that, we didn’t have any further problems with traffic, although we did drive through quite a bit of heavy rain, and even a bit of lightning. Mind you, I’d rather have that when we’re in the car, not out walking.
We made it back to Calais at around 5:45pm, and when we pulled up to the ticket machine, it offered us the 6:20pm train. I didn’t think twice about it, and told Debbie that was fine. We quickly cleared passport checks at both the French and English sides, then we headed into the car park, so I could go and use the restrooms and get some wine. Debbie stayed in the car to carry on looking through more scrapbooks.
As I headed inside, I happened to glance up at the TV screen that tells you what’s happening with your train. I couldn’t believe what I saw. Our number was up for boarding, with the final call in nine minutes! I couldn’t work out at first what had happened, then I realised. We were actually booked on the 6:50pm train. It had offered us the earlier one, which we’d taken, but that left us very little time for shopping. Ok…
I used the restrooms, and headed into the shop, which thankfully was deserted. As time was now of the essence, I didn’t even bother to get a trolley, as that would’ve meant finding a Euro, so I found two boxes of wine, tried carrying one under each arm, which seemed to work Ok, and went straight to the checkout, where fortunately there was no line. I paid up, and went straight back to the car, scaring the life out of Debbie, as she thought there was no way I could be that quick, and thought it was someone trying to break into the car!
We loaded the wine in, and got going, and fortunately we were still within the time for our earlier train. Once again, they tried to load us on the top row, and once again I asked for the bottom row, this time getting a very nice guy, who had absolutely no problem with that request.
We made our way back, and were in the UK 35 minutes later, and heading for home. It’s just as well we did end up on the earlier train, as it emerged Debbie had told her son that she’d be picking him up about 7:00pm, which we’d never have managed if we’d been on the train we were booked on.
We pulled into our house at around 7:00pm, and Debbie helped Mark and I to upload the car, before heading off. It had been a really wonderful day out, and we’re already planning our next day trip. We’re hopefully going to take the Eurostar over to Paris for the day early in October. I can’t wait for our next adventure together.
The weather today was hot and sunny, with some cloud while we were in Bruges with temperatures in the mid 70s, and rain on the way back, and a lot cooler. The best thing today was being able to just wander around Bruges and enjoy ourselves. The worst thing today was the rain on the way back and hunting for a parking space when we arrived. Today we tried visiting the Choco Story And the result was it was interesting, but I don’t think I’d rush back. The most magical moment today was standing in the Markt, admiring all the beautiful buildings there.
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What a great time you guys had! Glad you were able to find your way back to the car! Great pictures from Bruges before you left! Thanks for taking us along for the ride!
What a very interesting fact about the hospital. The grounds are beautiful. I wonder how often the building along the canal get flooded?? The final installment was great and Thanks so much for another wonderful journey.
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What a very interesting fact about the hospital. The grounds are beautiful. I wonder how often the building along the canal get flooded??
That's a really interesting question. We've had a lot of flooding over here, both in the UK and continental Europe over the winter and I never once heard anything about Bruges being flooded, so I guess maybe not very often...
That was quite a bit of walking! Glad you made the earlier train, but that would have been a shock when you thought you had a bit of time to shop. for taking us along on this Belgian adventure, even if it has caused me to crave chocolate.
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Finally, we started to see familiar sights, and knew we were getting close to the station. However, by now we must’ve walked 15 minutes since we left the Bejinhof. I realised when I checked the map later that we’d literally down about three sides of a square. In fact, later on I put in all our walking into Google Maps to see how far we’d gone. I didn’t quite account for everything, but I reckon we easily walked four miles in total! 
As Debbie said when I texted her, “that means I can have a bit more chocolate then!” 
Mind you, I’d rather have that when we’re in the car, not out walking. 
Coming from you, that's a real compliment! 
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