Canals, diamonds and red lights – an Amsterdam getaway COMPLETED - Page 13 - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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.
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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Evem though that ice was much thicker, I don't think I'd skate on it. I guess I'm just a scaredy cat. Amsterdam certainly is beautiful, and maybe it's because I have a thing for winter photography, but it looks so serene and peaceful there.
I agree. If you know what I mean, it didn't feel that serene and peaceful when we were there, but it certainly looked it in the photos.
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Friday 10 February – part two: a tour around the world!
It was into the Troppenmuseum, although sadly we found the wrong entrance, which meant longer outside. When we finally found the entrance and headed in, the woman who gave us our tickets was laughing at us, as we both had streaming eyes and noses from the cold outside. Without any prompting, she said “and if you want coffee, the restaurant is upstairs at the back.”
We put our backpacks and coats into the lockers – I do like the way these are supplied, as it was a real change not to have to lug our backpacks around with us and, if they do ask for money, they’re all refundable when you return to get your stuff, which is good.
We headed up to the top floor, so that we could work our way back down and it was like paradise up there. For a while, we were literally the only people up there and it was lovely to feel that we had the whole place to ourselves. Sadly, the school party we’d seen coming in soon arrived, although thankfully by the time they’d been broken up into groups, they weren’t as noisy.
The starting point was Latin America and the Caribbean and I couldn’t get over the vibrant colours in this section. They were just stunning and it was fascinating to see so much from this part of the world that I’ve yet to see much of.
The same applied to the West Asia and North Africa section. I absolutely adored their section on northern African architecture, giving you the chance to go inside a house and a market. It was so well put together and I couldn’t help but think of Morocco in Epcot as we wandered around here.
The next section we hit was all about Africa.
Words fail me here... This is actually a coffin! The view outside... I just thought the look on this guy’s face was lovely
Then it was down one level to explore first the Netherlands East India, as the Dutch colonised large parts of the world. In fact, that’s how this museum first started, with the building constructed to hold these treasures. It was fascinating to learn about Dutch life out there and one thing that sticks in my mind is the fact that the women were closer to the natives than their husbands, simply because they had native nannies, which was really interesting.
Examples of real life Dutch colonists Treasures from the colonies
[b]Next: emerging into Southeast Asia and New Guinea
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Looks like a wonderful museum. I don't know if this is still true, but when I was there the Indonesian influence was quite pervasive. There were Indonesian restaurants (fantastic!) on every corner like all the curry places in London and Indonesian goods in the stores. So nice to see all the colorful art when it's so wintry-gray outside.
Looks like a wonderful museum. I don't know if this is still true, but when I was there the Indonesian influence was quite pervasive. There were Indonesian restaurants (fantastic!) on every corner like all the curry places in London and Indonesian goods in the stores. So nice to see all the colorful art when it's so wintry-gray outside.
Sadly we didn't see many Indonesian places, so I guess that influence has died off somewhat.
I'm getting caught up by just had to stop, the photos of the canals were so amazing. The city looks so clean and beautiful, gosh, I really need to go. Those poor swans, and all the house boats and are those water taxis/trams? They must loose so much business I guess?
So lovely, I need to show these pics to my FIL, i was showing some to my hubs and he was trying to place all the places. Somehow he just started talking about all the great coffee shops, and the Heinken building....men!
I'm getting caught up by just had to stop, the photos of the canals were so amazing. The city looks so clean and beautiful, gosh, I really need to go. Those poor swans, and all the house boats and are those water taxis/trams? They must loose so much business I guess?
So lovely, I need to show these pics to my FIL, i was showing some to my hubs and he was trying to place all the places. Somehow he just started talking about all the great coffee shops, and the Heinken building....men!
Well the coffee shops and the Heineken experience are both big draws in Amsterdam...
Friday 10 February – part three: emerging into Southeast Asia and New Guinea
Next we headed down to Southeast Asia and this contained some absolutely beautiful artefacts. I wandered in here for ages, taking lots of photos.
Then it was into round and about India, and once again, this was packed with lots of colourful items. I just kept marvelling at how bright and vibrant everything was.
The final room on this floor was New Guinea, and once again, there were so many amazing items in here. I was just stunned by the variety of items we saw here.
Looks painful...
Finally we were back on the ground floor and the main hall is home to a temporary exhibition, called Death Matters and, unsurprisingly, this was all about death. It was haunting in places, particularly the photos of people before and after they died. Frighteningly, the shots of them dead looked so peaceful, as if they were just sleeping.
They then took you through the beliefs of various religions and the funeral services and the afterlife. Although it was a serious subject, some of it was uplifting in a strange way.
When we came out, we headed for the restaurant to enjoy a hot chocolate, which was exactly what we needed.
Then it was into the final section, man and the environment, which looks at the different types of ecosystems in the world, including the sea, cities, tropical rainforests and savannahs and man’s impact on all of them. The cities section looked at Manila in the Philippines ad it was pretty scary to look at how big it is and how long it can take people to commute into the centre for their jobs...
That done, we headed back to the cloakroom to get our backpacks and headed back outside.
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I guess I'm just a scaredy cat. 
Amsterdam certainly is beautiful, and maybe it's because I have a thing for winter photography, but it looks so serene and peaceful there.
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