On the road (1) – Six countries, nine days COMPLETED - Page 17 - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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Lovely photos! I'm so glad you had the place to yourself (for most of it anyway). It really does add to the photos when no one else is in them in the background!
What an amazing place. And even better that you had it all to yourself!!
And going ahead a day, those photos from the top of Grenoble are just beautiful. What a beautiful city!
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God, I can't tell you how jealous I am of your cool, lightweight tripod! We looked around a bit but the shops only had those bulky, heavy ones Guess we'll have to fly to Vegas sometime soon
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The abbey looks very interesting! I've always wondered how cold these beautiful buildings might have been when they were actually inhabited. I'm sure they had some fires, but still they look so drafty and cold.
Saturday 20 March – part three: that’s one impressive roof!
We sorted out some fruit for a snack to keep us going and set off for our next stop, which was due to be Beaune. However, as we drove, I looked at the guidebook and spotted a village called Semur-en-Auxois, which had a castle and a lovely medieval church. The picture of it looked very nice and, as it was by the road that we were now on, I suggested a quick detour. Some photos on the way there:
The village was literally straight off the main road. As soon as we rounded the corner from the roundabout, the castle was there in the distance. The closer we got to it, the older the place got, perhaps understandably and we were soon on cobbles. I had some fun and games getting photos on those things, but I don’t think I did too badly. I’m not sure what our poor car thought of having to go on those things though – I think it was her first ever cobble experience.
We parked up briefly, so I could get some photos of the church and the nearby marketplace.
Then it was back in the car and back towards the main road. I can tell you that we were both very relieved to get off the cobbles. Tarmac never felt so good!
From there, it wasn’t far down to the main motorway and we were soon back on the toll road. We noticed how the scenery once again became a lot more dull and how the price of fuel rocketed up. We had seen diesel for just €1.08 a litre ($1.45) and yet on the toll road, everything was at least €1.20 ($1.62) or sometimes €1.25 ($1.69) a litre. I guess the lesson here is try not to fill up when you’re on the toll road, if you can possibly avoid it.
Cows! ... and donkeys! The sign you see everywhere in the world!
Fortunately, this toll road didn’t cost us much, just €4.60 ($6.20) and then we were off and heading into Beaune. I had said to Mark that we might have to just drive around and get some photos, as I didn’t know how easily we’d be able to park in the town. The closer we got to the town centre, the more I thought that parking might be a problem. I couldn’t see a single space anywhere....
Tim, bless his heart, took us very literally in our directions and aimed us directly at the Hotel Dieu, which is fair, as that’s where we’d asked him to go. However, this turned out to be a good move, as we found a parking spot, literally a few yards away. Mark was very impressed with his parallel parking and so was I. There was no way I could’ve got into that space, trust me... :
Where we parked
As soon as I got out of the car, I could see the Hotel Dieu ahead of us, which is what I had come here to see. I figured that we’d just see it from the outside, as everything I had read said that this closed for lunch between 12pm and 2pm out of season and March was classified as being out of season. However, as I got closer, taking photos all the time, it did appear to be open.
I walked over and discovered that it was, indeed, open. What a great result! We immediately headed in and paid our €6.50 ($8.80) each and picked up a leaflet in English. Everywhere we’d been so far always had leaflets in a multitude of different languages, usually at least English, French, German and Italian, and they were very welcome, as they explained enough about each place we were visiting and allowed us to tour at our own pace.
We headed out into the courtyard and immediately I think Mark could see why I wanted to come here. It’s a stunning sight. This place started life in 1413, when it was established as a hospice to tend to the effects of poverty and famine in the city, following the Hundred Years War. The major draw and the bit that first attracted my attention are the geometric multi-coloured Burgundian roof tiles. Your eye goes straight to them the second you first see them.
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Guess we'll have to fly to Vegas sometime soon 
I’m not sure what our poor car thought of having to go on those things though – I think it was her first ever cobble experience. 
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