A return to Switzerland – land of mountains, museums and moos! COMPLETED 12/4 - Page 19 - PassPorter - A Community of Walt Disney World, Disneyland, Disney Cruise Line, and General Travel Forums
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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.
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What a wonderful day in Colmar!! Love both of the stuffed cows - and the market was very interesting. I wish we had markets here... I would love to go to the market each day to pick out dinner fixings.
You guys don't have markets? I guess now I think about it, I can only think of really big ones, like the Italian Market in Philly and the Farmers' Market in LA. We have a weekly market over here, although I've never been to it. I tend to just get everything from the supermarket in our weekly shop.
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So glad I could help and inspire you with Colmar! That is so nice of you! As beautiful as Colmar looks in the photos, it's just being there that does so much more for you. It can overwhelm you at times! You made the right choice and so glad I was there for three active and fun filled nights!
Like this...JY's Restaurant, where I had an unbelievable meal on night two. Building at the end and center.
Ever since I read your trip report, I knew I wanted to get this photo - and as soon as I saw this, I was saying to Mark "there's JY's restaurant". Of course, he hadn't read your trip report, so he was like
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Love that indoor market in your photos that you visited. I don't know how I missed that, since I spent quite a bit of time in this area.
It was literally about a dozen steps away from where the above photo was taken.
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I think Cheryl, probably mentioned it, but the last set of photos on her latest post here is from the Little Venice area or Petit Venise (French).
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Regarding the stork nests, we may have the same nest in our photos. Certainly the same building. Just wish on your day, the storks hadn't decided to desert it!
Your Photo of Stork Nest.
My Photo of Stork Nest
It may have been the wrong time for them and they may not have been nesting then.
Saturday 31 August – part eight: heading into Switzerland…
We set off again, with me fascinated by all the signs for Basel. I love the French, as they put the name in French, which is Bale, with Basel in brackets.
There were still lots of German place names too…
…. And eventually I saw a sign for Germany, so I guess we weren’t too far away from that border either, which would explain the amount of German.
I was glad we weren’t going the other way.
Soon we were approaching the Swiss border, but there was none of the ceremony we had last time we crossed over at Geneva, when they were stopping cars to check you had a vignette for the Swiss motorways. Essentially you pay up front to use them, and display a sticker in your windscreen to prove you’ve paid. We literally just drove straight through…
And now we’re in Switzerland, as shown by the CH letters at the top of this sign
From there, we were into the outskirts of Basel…
A bit industrial… … still very close to the border, with the signs back to France Fuel prices were in both Euros and Swiss francs
We headed for our hotel, which looked very nice.
The guy on reception couldn’t have been nicer. He was like a personal guide to the city, showing me how to get to the main visitor attractions, explaining about restaurants, the trams (which he gave me a free pass for ) and where to park. I figured Mark would be starting to worry where I’d got to, I was gone so long.
What wasn’t so good was I discovered that breakfast wasn’t included in our room stay. I had a horrible feeling about this when I looked at the paperwork. Now I know I noted down that it was included, so I must’ve got that from somewhere, but it wasn’t on the paperwork, and sure enough his copy said room only. I guess we’ll be paying the 20CHF (c.$21.50) per person for it then, as tomorrow’s Sunday and not much is open on Sunday.
We headed up to the room, which was very modern…
… and after dumping our bags, we headed off to the park the car, seeing some nice sights on the way.
With that, it was back to the room for a break, as we were both shattered after last night’s poor night of sleep. I must admit I felt like I do when I get back from the States and I’m jetlagged. I felt tired, but also felt like the room was swimming, which wasn’t a good feeling.
Eventually I had a shower and that made me feel a bit better.
Glad you arrived safely, albeit a little.... jet-lagged-y. Some European hotels crack me up - surrounded by such history yet the rooms are strikingly modern. As long as they're comfortable, I guess it doesn't really matter. And the service from the front desk was stellar - can't ask for much more!
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Glad you arrived safely, albeit a little.... jet-lagged-y.
Yes, that was something I wasn't expecting to experience on this vacation...
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Some European hotels crack me up - surrounded by such history yet the rooms are strikingly modern. As long as they're comfortable, I guess it doesn't really matter.
I find it weird too, the way they're modern and yet often historic at the same time. It's as if they can't make up their mind what they want to be - or they want to appeal to everyone at once...
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And the service from the front desk was stellar - can't ask for much more!
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Nope, never seen a square toilet in the US....perhaps owing to the...er, shall I say roundness....of so many US tushies?!
Hope you're able to take advantage of the free tram rides, since you are paying a steep amount for breakfast. Hope the breakfast lives up to the price! We were recently at a hotel in Chicago and paid about $16/person for breakfast, and it was WELL worth it! Other times I think I've overpaid for free breakfast!
Nope, never seen a square toilet in the US....perhaps owing to the...er, shall I say roundness....of so many US tushies?!
Now I'm glad you said that, not me!
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Hope you're able to take advantage of the free tram rides, since you are paying a steep amount for breakfast.
We didn't in the end. Sadly, it was easier to just walk around from our hotel, as it was in such a good location. Maybe if we'd been staying there a couple of nights...
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Hope the breakfast lives up to the price! We were recently at a hotel in Chicago and paid about $16/person for breakfast, and it was WELL worth it! Other times I think I've overpaid for free breakfast!
Actually, in fairness, it did, but boy do I hear you about it varying from hotel to hotel!
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Originally Posted by chezp
You guys don't have markets? I guess now I think about it, I can only think of really big ones, like the Italian Market in Philly and the Farmers' Market in LA. We have a weekly market over here, although I've never been to it. I tend to just get everything from the supermarket in our weekly shop.
Some places do - but they tend to be seasonal and limited. JAX tried one near our house and it folded in a month. We have one on the west side of town, but the selection is always so limited and I hate having to drive almost an hour to get there...
Some places do - but they tend to be seasonal and limited. JAX tried one near our house and it folded in a month. We have one on the west side of town, but the selection is always so limited and I hate having to drive almost an hour to get there...
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I guess now I think about it, I can only think of really big ones, like the Italian Market in Philly and the Farmers' Market in LA. We have a weekly market over here, although I've never been to it. 
I tend to just get everything from the supermarket in our weekly shop.
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As beautiful as Colmar looks in the photos, it's just being there that does so much more for you. It can overwhelm you at times! 
You made the right choice and so glad I was there for three active and fun filled nights! 
Now I know I noted down that it was included, so I must’ve got that from somewhere, but it wasn’t on the paperwork, and sure enough his copy said room only. I guess we’ll be paying the 20CHF (c.$21.50) per person for it then, as tomorrow’s Sunday and not much is open on Sunday. 
I must admit I felt like I do when I get back from the States and I’m jetlagged. I felt tired, but also felt like the room was swimming, which wasn’t a good feeling. 
Sorry about the breakfast not being included! 
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