Canals, diamonds and red lights – an Amsterdam getaway 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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Those churches are beautiful, those windows! Our Lord in the Attic made me chuckle though....
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I'm a little bit behind, but I have to say that the South American etc costumes from the museum look remarkably similar to the costumes our Mardi Gras Indians make by hand every year! The photos of Amsterdam are just gorgeous. I'm glad you decided to stop a the science museum as the photos of the whale exhibit are great. I love the Church shots--and I'm so glad you decided to go in--I'm slightly obsessed with the insides of Churches--I'm a recovering Catholic and I'm sure I've told you that I have a degree in comparative religion and I love visiting different churches to see what they look like around the world. (My favorite is The Church of the Bones)
I think we discussed this last time we saw you and I explained about my obsession with churches and their architecture. We should do a tour of churches together!
Very interesting to have caught the museum in the middle of the restoration work and be able to see both sides. The Old Church looks like it was really cold inside-- the poor choir!
Beautiful church! I got a shock in Antwerp when trying to find a church by looking up at the steeple and just wandering thru town, then all of a sudden looking back street level and seeing a VERY scantily clad woman sitting on a chair in a picture window! Then we realized we were also a block from he docks. My DH says if he'd done the same thing, I never would have believed it : "Really, I didn't mean to end up in the red light district - I was looking for a church!" sound reasonable to you?
Beautiful church! I got a shock in Antwerp when trying to find a church by looking up at the steeple and just wandering thru town, then all of a sudden looking back street level and seeing a VERY scantily clad woman sitting on a chair in a picture window! Then we realized we were also a block from he docks. My DH says if he'd done the same thing, I never would have believed it : "Really, I didn't mean to end up in the red light district - I was looking for a church!" sound reasonable to you?
Friday 10 February – part eight: this is the souvenir shop for me!
When we came out, we wandered through the Red Light District, with me trying to get photos. It’s not an easy task, as you’re not supposed to and one girl covered herself up the second she saw me, but then revealed herself to Mark. It wasn’t that exciting, as they were all in underwear. We both thought that we saw more the last time we were here...
It didn’t help that the main road in the Red Light District is currently being dug up as part of the plans to extend the subway. That did detract from the atmosphere a bit, although there were still some familiar type businesses here...
this is a museum of what you think!
We made our way towards Dam Square, finding some lovely views back towards St. Nikolas church on the way.
When we got to the square, I got a few photos, then decided I’d go into the souvenir shop, as it looked quite big and, so far I’d struggled to find a good fridge magnet of Amsterdam. Well, I solved that and a lot more besides in there. The second I walked in, I knew I’d be Ok, as I saw cow stuff. I headed upstairs and saw their huge selection of clogs from upstairs...
When I came back down, Mark told me I’d like the next room and he was right! He told me to look up and you won’t believe it....
... but this was on the ceiling – seriously!
Isn’t it cool? I was in my element and went a bit nuts. I got my fridge magnets, a bowl engraved with tulips, as I love that flower, a cow spoon rest, a cow notebook, a pair of cow ovengloves and a pair of cow clog-type slippers! Perfect!
As modelled when we got back to the hotel!
I think Mark wanted to disown me the whole time I was in there, but the woman serving me seemed to enjoy my enthusiasm for cows.
That done, we caught the tram back to the room and had a couple of hours downtime back at the hotel.
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Just getting caught up! Great pictures of the museum and the chuches. When I saw the pictures of the cow stuff at the gift shop, my first thought was, I wonder how much of that stuff went home with Cheryl!
What a perfect gift shop for you! Ok, I have to be honest here...the photos you've posted have been beautiful! I love the architecture, the history, the chunks of ice floating in the canal...but I think from here on out, I'm going to remember this as the trip where you visited the best souvenir shop ever! I would've left that shop a pauper with all the cute things I would've purchased there!
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That gift shop is awesome! Is Holland known for cows? If so, I wasn't aware of that fact!
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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
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When you put it like that, no it doesn't! 
this is a museum of what you think! 
He told me to look up and you won’t believe it....
Love the cow slippers! 
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