A magical Mediterranean vacation COMPLETED - Page 35 - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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Was it quiet there? I remember it being so calm and very quiet......it was nice to see so much respect from so many different cultures. Again, a place I never thought I would have visited, but so thankful we did.
It was very quiet there and I really liked that. As you say, it was lovely to see so much respect there.
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OK, the "red carpet" story........and I will say that this was told to us from a guide in Ephesus .........so if I am pegged as the idiot tourist who took the bait.........hook, line and sinker........so be it. I enjoyed the story.
Once we left to go to the town of Ephesus and went through the ruins, we came upon the theatre and there was a long road leading up to it........our guide told us that when Cleopatra would be coming in they would call on the most beautiful women in the city to line the road and stand with glasses of red wine, as Cleo would pass them they were to pour the wine onto the road in front of her.....therefore making a "red carpet" and honoring her appearance into the theatre for the evening. IDK......truth or not?? It was a nice story told to us by our real guide. I'd like to think it's true and think that is really where the term "red carpet" came from
Interesting - it's not a story I've ever heard before, but I like the sound of it!
I've heard that story as well, but I think the oldest written reference is from the play Agamemnon by Aeschylus (5th century BC). Agamemnon's wife, Clytemnestra, lays out a red carpet as a pathway to "welcome" her husband's return. He walks down the carpet to be murdered by her! Lovely story! That reference, though, presupposes a tradition of using a red carpet for royalty or deities to walk upon, so it probably has a much earlier origin.
Wednesday 9 July – part three: “Hey Mickey Mouse number 45”
We headed back down the mountain, seeing some stunning scenery as we did. It’s hard to believe that a lot of what you see here was once river. Fulia had told us on the way over how the water had receded by three or four miles and was still continuing to do so.
We made our way down to the upper level of Ephesus and we were delighted to find out that we’d be walking downhill. I can tell you that met with a great deal of approval from everyone on the bus.
When we stopped, we were by some shops and the guy from one of them was immediately all over us, yelling “Hey Mickey Mouse number 45” (our group number), as he’d seen the Mickey mouse shaped paddles Fulia was using. He was trying to encourage people to buy from him. Look what he was selling!
Our tickets were already waiting for us here and what lovely tickets they were too – a wonderful souvenir to take back with us.
We headed inside and got as many photos as we could of the view in front of us as we knew that we wouldn’t be coming back this way again.
Ephesus was built in the 10th century BC by the ancient Greeks, but it really flourished when it came under the Roman Republic in around 129 BC. Estimates put the population at that time somewhere between 35,000 and 55,000 people, making it the third largest Roman city in Asia Minor. When Augustus became Emperor I 27 BC, he made Ephesus the capital of western Asia Minor and it was described as being second in importance and size only to Rome.
The Temple of Artemis was one of the seven wonders of the ancient world, but in 268 AD, it was destroyed or damaged by a raid by the Goths.
The town was partially destroyed by an earthquake in 614 AD, although as you’ll find out shortly, Fulia had a different story for what happened to it, so who knows? Anyway, the city was rediscovered in 1863 (are you seeing a pattern here? ) by the British architect John Turtle Wood, who was being sponsored by the British Museum. After the first discovery, many more archaeologists descended on Ephesus, and quite a few finds are now in the British Museum. We are so going to have to get back there to see all of these things…
Fulia found us a shady spot to tell us all about this place. It fell into disrepair after a plague of mosquitos devastated the city with malaria, as of course back then in the sixth century, Ephesus was a lot closer to the water than it is now. Today it’s full of eucalyptus trees, which also helps to ward the pesky creatures off.
She told us that this was only the small theatre in front of us, which I found hard to believe, as this was big enough.
Next: these are not restrooms I’d have wanted to visit!
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I just saw pictures of that praying wall on another board about photography....what a small world.
It looks very interesting. Going to Mary's "home" would've been very interesting for me too. Growing up Catholic we learned a lot about Mary in school.
The ruins really look so neat. You 2 did some very interesting tours on this trip.
So far, the excavation site looks much as it did in the late 60's, but I know there are sections to come that will be new to me. There's enough work for archaeologists at Ephesus to last another 100 years. Gee, how could you resist buying a genuine fake watch? I wonder if they keep genuine fake time?
I just saw pictures of that praying wall on another board about photography....what a small world.
Wow, it is!
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It looks very interesting. Going to Mary's "home" would've been very interesting for me too. Growing up Catholic we learned a lot about Mary in school.
The ruins really look so neat. You 2 did some very interesting tours on this trip.
Thanks - we really enjoyed the tours we took - I was very pleased with them.
So far, the excavation site looks much as it did in the late 60's, but I know there are sections to come that will be new to me. There's enough work for archaeologists at Ephesus to last another 100 years. Gee, how could you resist buying a genuine fake watch? I wonder if they keep genuine fake time?
I've seen that "genuine fake" someplace else, can't recall where, but at least they are being honest!
You two look much more comfortable today - the weather must be more manageable than Athens. Or your faces are not quite as red, at least.
I've seen that "genuine fake" someplace else, can't recall where, but at least they are being honest!
You two look much more comfortable today - the weather must be more manageable than Athens. Or your faces are not quite as red, at least.
Athens was by far the hottest - I think I said mid 90s, but being honest, I think it was over 100 degrees. The other days, it was more like mid 90s, so more manageable, but still not pleasant. The reason we're not red (yet! ) is because our first stop was all in the shade, then we were on the bus. A couple of hours later when we finished in Ephesus, we were a lot hotter, trust me!
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) by the British architect John Turtle Wood, who was being sponsored by the British Museum. After the first discovery, many more archaeologists descended on Ephesus, and quite a few finds are now in the British Museum. We are so going to have to get back there to see all of these things… 
I love the guy's sign.......genuine fake watches! 
) is because our first stop was all in the shade, then we were on the bus. A couple of hours later when we finished in Ephesus, we were a lot hotter, trust me! 
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