Boating on the Broads COMPLETED 5/19 - Page 15 - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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Saturday 19 April – part three: exploring the gardens of Blickling Hall
Soon we were pulling into the Aylsham depot, and you could tell this was the biggest station on the line.
We headed outside, and there waiting for us was our taxi. As we passed through Aylsham, we could see that it was much bigger than Wroxham. For starters, it had a Tesco, which is of course a sign of civilisation, although in fairness, I can’t see Roy letting any other supermarket into Wroxham.
We were soon out to Blicking Hall, and this was the sight that greeted us as we pulled up. Isn’t it just stunning?
We made our way slowly down towards the building. Mark then suggested that perhaps we should grab some lunch first, and given it was just after midday, and based on yesterday’s experience, I figured that was a pretty good plan, so in we went to the restaurant.
They did things the old way, where you line up and get your food, and then find a seat, but thankfully there was plenty of seating.
I got the wild rice cakes with vegetables and spicy tomato sauce, which actually wasn’t spicy at all, thank goodness! It certainly wasn’t up to the quality of yesterday’s lunch, but then again, it was a lot cheaper, so you have to balance these things up.
Mark had the casserole, and he enjoyed it.
Once again, we shared a scone with butter and jam:
There are no scores here, as it was a serve yourself place, and I don’t feel you can fairly judge those against places where you are served, as obviously there’s no score for service, and you don’t expect an amazing atmosphere either, although it was certainly very pleasant here.
After we were done eating, we headed upstairs to see the RAF Oulton Museum, It was interesting to read about the role that Blickling Hall had played during the Second World War, linking into the nearby RAF (Royal Air Force) site.
We then had a browse through the shop, before heading through to get our tickets for the house. We had a choice of either the house or garden. We were going to go for the house first, but I realised that it would only get colder after this, as it was 1:00pm now, so we headed out into the garden first, although we got a more unusual glimpse of the house as we did so…
The gardens really were stunning. This is the parterre…
This is the double borders, filled with hyacinths on the upper deck, which smelt beautiful.
You also got some beautiful views of the hall from here too.
Registered Message Board Members save 30% off PassPorter guidebooks! When you register you'll have access to a discount coupon good for 30% off the list price of PassPorter books in our online store.
I will update this whenever I can while we're away on vacation for the next week, but if you don't see an update from me each morning, don't worry - it just means we either don't have Internet access or we're having too much of a good time!
Wow, that's an impressive building. And the gardens so far look amazing too!
Have a good vacation!!
__________________
Tanya
Every click helps feed .6 bowls of food to rescued animals. Give a quick click every day and help animals in shelters! www.theanimalrescuesite.com
Registered Message Board Members save 30% off PassPorter guidebooks! When you register you'll have access to a discount coupon good for 30% off the list price of PassPorter books in our online store.
Registered Message Board Members save 30% off PassPorter guidebooks! When you register you'll have access to a discount coupon good for 30% off the list price of PassPorter books in our online store.
Well we have free Wi-Fi and I have time this morning, so here's another update:
Saturday 19 April – part four: not all bluebells are blue…
We walked up to the start of the top deck of the gardens, and got some photos of the statues…
… the flowers…
… and the temple in the distance. I wasn’t about to walk up there!
We then wandered over to the area of the garden filled with bluebells. It really was stunning.
Neither of us realised that you could get bluebells that weren’t actually blue…
I’ve got to tell you about the “photoshoot” that was going on here. There were four girls, all dressed identically, so we hope they were sisters. We heard the parents say that last year they had taken photos in the bluebells, and that’s what they were doing again today. All I can say is that it was taking them a while, and they were obviously getting the girls to yell “flowers” whenever they took a photo, as I heard that yell plenty of times.
We headed back towards the house, admiring the dry moat around it…
There was a lake in the distance, although we didn’t head down that far…
Instead, we walked around the back of the Hall…
… and then we walked along the side of the house through the garden there, which was filled with beautiful colours.
I don’t know if anyone knows what these trees are, but they are beautiful. I’ve seen them before, but I couldn’t tell you what they were. Anyone?
We headed back around to the front of the Hall.
We noticed that they seemed to have a thing about cows, which seemed perfectly normal and sensible to me.
Looks like you timed your visit just right for the gardens. I'm sure they're beautiful in summer as well, but those spring flowers are wonderful. The beautiful trees are magnolias. Lots of them on my street!
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As we passed through Aylsham, we could see that it was much bigger than Wroxham. For starters, it had a Tesco, which is of course a sign of civilisation, although in fairness, I can’t see Roy letting any other supermarket into Wroxham. 
It certainly wasn’t up to the quality of yesterday’s lunch, but then again, it was a lot cheaper, so you have to balance these things up. 
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Pixie Dust
Waiting for our next adventure after enjoying our Alaska cruise. 
Jenn
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