A Swiss spring break with friends TRIP REPORT COMPLETED 6/27 - Page 20 - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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.
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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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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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The joys of mountain driving. I think once you're used to it, it's not a big deal. But coming from anywhere else, it's really scary! I also think it's scarier for the passengers than the driver!
All the cows back down in the valley were worth the trouble though.
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Your pictures are bringing back so many memories. The last time I was in Switzerland was in the late 90s. Such a beautiful country. Glad you were able to find so many cows.
That does sound like a scary drive! I wouldn’t have been happy to see cars coming toward me, knowing what that meant. Don’t suppose the rental had a backup camera?
I had to check that with Mark - no it didn't. You see, I'm already trying to wipe the whole thing from my memory!
Oh my goodness how scary! We were on a similar road driving to Lake Tahoe once and I know exactly the feeling! Besides we thought if we were to drive off the road and end up in a ravine somewhere, no one would find us!!
Yes, that is a scary thought. There was a case in Scotland, I think, a couple of years ago where that happened and a car went off the road. I know they found it, but maybe a day or two later and I honestly don't remember whether those inside died or not. If not, they were seriously injured. Very sad.
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Quite an uneasy situation with the one lane road. Glad Mark got you out of it all in one piece and the car too! Great photos and scenery along the way. Where there is the Swiss Alps, you will certainly find your boys!
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October 6, 2017-Enjoying an amazing dinner at Victoria & Albert's with PP's Dot and Drew
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I would have been shutting my eyes, too. I hate scary roads. No way would I be taking photos either. Love the photos once they resumed. Such a beautiful place to live. Swiss cows!
Quite an uneasy situation with the one lane road. Glad Mark got you out of it all in one piece and the car too! Great photos and scenery along the way. Where there is the Swiss Alps, you will certainly find your boys!
Unless it's too early in the year - when we first went in late March, we didn't find any of them.
I would have been shutting my eyes, too. I hate scary roads. No way would I be taking photos either. Love the photos once they resumed. Such a beautiful place to live. Swiss cows!
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Sunday 6 May – part four: Sarah gets a new experience!
We’d visited the cheese factory in Gruyeres before, but in a big group, and had been hurried around, to say the least, so now we could take our time.
First we had a restroom stop and unbelievably they have Japanese style toilets here, the first time Sarah had encountered such a thing. I heard a squeal as it started to clean and rotate the seat, but she didn’t realise other people had come in – when we went in, it was only us. It was a very funny moment…
We stopped to look at the “cheese cave”. I forget how much can be stored in here, but 7,000 sticks in my mind, so maybe that’s correct?
Then we got our admission tickets and headed in, being guided round by Cherry the cow.
As you can see, there were cows everywhere you looked!
The views outside were pretty neat too…
We’d been told to go and see the production area first, so we did and we soon understood why. They were actually working and I don’t say that lightly, as they were putting the cheeses into the moulds and then they’d spend the next 16 hours drying off, so we wouldn’t have seen much after that.
The starting point for Gruyeres cheese is unsurprisingly high-quality milk from all those beautiful bovines we’d seen so far on our travels. The milk is then put in a copper vat and left to settle overnight. Once it’s at the right texture, the contents of the vat are then pumped into round moulds, each of which is marked with Le Gruyere AOP along with the number of the cheese dairy. They’re then left for 16 hours (if I remember right) and the next day they’re removed from their moulds and put in a concentrated salt bath for 24 hours. After this, they go to mature in the cellars for at least three months, but it can be up to 18 months.
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We were on a similar road driving to Lake Tahoe once and I know exactly the feeling! Besides we thought if we were to drive off the road and end up in a ravine somewhere, no one would find us!!
Great photos and scenery along the way. Where there is the Swiss Alps, you will certainly find your boys! 
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