On the road (3) A (hopefully) sunny September road trip to Spain COMPLETED - Page 39 - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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!
Welcome! We're happy you've found the PassPorter Community -- the friendliest place to plan your vacation to Walt Disney World, Disney Cruise Line, Disneyland, and the world in general! You are now viewing the PassPorter Message Board Community as a guest, which gives you limited access. As our guest, feel free to browse our messages by selecting the forum you want to visit from the list below.
To post messages and ask questions, join our FREE community today and you'll get access to tools and resources not available to guests, such as our vacation countown timers, "living" avatars, private messaging system, database searches, downloads, and a special PassPorter discount code. Registration is fast, simple, and completely free. Just click the Join Our Community link.
If you think you've already joined, log in below now. If you don't remember your member name or password, please visit our Member Name and Password Recovery page. You are also welcome to contact us.
Wednesday 15 September – part five: now that’s what I call a stodge fest...
When we came out, we saw a candle sign and found this wonderful display of candles. The heat from there was quite something.
I wanted to go into the bapistry to see the famous Virgin, but Mark wasn’t feeling so well, so I set off on my own. You enter through a door to the right and progress up various stairs. There was quite a line to see her, so we had a wait, allowing me to get some photos on the way.
The statue is a small wooden one of La Morenta (the dark one), which is the heart of Montserrat. It is said to have been made by St. Luke and then brought her by St. Peter in 50 AD. Centuries later, it was hidden away in a cave. Sadly, wonderful as this history sounds, carbon dating has apparently shown it’s more likely that it dates from the 12th century, which is a shame. She’s protected behind glass, but her wooden orb is available for pilgrims to touch, which I did.
The guy in front of me touching the orb... ... and the view back into the basilica below
I headed back down and came out into the candle area again.
On the way back out again
By now, our stomachs really were demanding food, so the next business was to find the restaurant here, which we did, getting a few more photos on the way.
We found it, but it was buried inside a property. I honestly thought it would have lovely views either of the villages below or the monastery and, if it had, I wouldn’t have minded paying the €20 ($26) they were charged for each entree! Without that scenery, I couldn’t see the point.
We carried on wandering and found ourselves back in the original square we’d started in.
We headed into the bar, where they had a nice menu up, but as soon as I asked for something off it, we were told in no uncertain terms that all they had now were baguettes – either Spanish omelettes, Spanish ham or ham and cheese. We both went for the Spanish omelette, which has potatoes in it and it was a bit of a stodge fest. Although I enjoyed it at the time, I know it repeated on both of us horribly later in the way.
Once we’d finished eating, it was time to head back down, as we’d spent a good couple of hours browsing the place. We found a shop and got a book, fridge magnet and picture of the place.
Then it was back down on the funicular railway. My goodness, there was a heck of a line for this and I must admit I did think that perhaps we wouldn’t get a seat, but these things take more people than you think and we were seated with no problem.
Once back at the car park, I used the restrooms and we took a few final photos.
Photos of the original railway that run up to Montserrat
I hope all the photos are showing through OK - at the moment, there's obviously an issue with Photobucket and none are showing up, so I can't check them.
PassPorter's Free-Book to Walt Disney World It’s hard to believe anything is free at Walt Disney World; but there are actually a number of things you can get or do for little to no cost. This e-book documents over 200 free or cheap tips to do before you go and after you arrive. You could save a considerable amount of money following these tips. Perhaps more importantly; you can discover overlooked attractions and little-known details most people whiz by on their way to spend money. Click here to see free sample pages from the e-book! Get this popular e-book free of extra charges when you join the PassPorter's Club for as little as $4.95. A club pass includes access to all our other e-books; e-worksheets; super-size photos; and more! This e-book is also available for separate purchase in the PassPorter Online Store for just $5.95.
All the photos are lovely. I found your comment about The Madonna to be true with most religious artifacts they aften are not what the legend tells us the 12th century is a far cry from 50AD.
PassPorter's Free-Book to Walt Disney World It’s hard to believe anything is free at Walt Disney World; but there are actually a number of things you can get or do for little to no cost. This e-book documents over 200 free or cheap tips to do before you go and after you arrive. You could save a considerable amount of money following these tips. Perhaps more importantly; you can discover overlooked attractions and little-known details most people whiz by on their way to spend money. Click here to see free sample pages from the e-book! Get this popular e-book free of extra charges when you join the PassPorter's Club for as little as $4.95. A club pass includes access to all our other e-books; e-worksheets; super-size photos; and more! This e-book is also available for separate purchase in the PassPorter Online Store for just $5.95.
Wednesday 15 September – part six: you certainly know you’re leaving Spain!
Then it was back out on the road again. We headed first for Barcelona, where the traffic did get a little hairy and pretty busy in places. As it was a time when most businesses were supposed to be working, that was a bit of a nasty surprise.
Finally, we were through that and heading for Girona and the French border. My goodness, we knew that we were heading for France. Whereas, on the way down here, the French had just signposted San Sebastian, which happens to be in Spain, with no mention of the country, here it was everywhere, with signs counting down the kilometres and minutes until you reached the next country, as well as signs marking the last turning and service station before you left Spain.
Very odd to see names of French towns and cities in Spanish
We took advantage of that last service station to fill up with gas, as it’s a lot cheaper in Spain than it is in France.
Then we were crossing the border, and bizarrely, this is an actual border crossing, the first one we’ve seen in the EU in all our road trips. By the way, if you’re thinking that Switzerland had border crossings, they did, but they’re not part of the EU, so that’s different. They even had police there, so I managed to sneak a photo, once we were safely across.
And now those French towns and cities written in French
Again, like the journey down, almost as soon as we crossed the border, the scenery changed, with the Pyrenees range of mountain looming up through the sunset to the left of us. It was a beautiful view.
The scenery generally became a lot more green and lush as well. Our first stop in France was to be Perpignan, which I wanted to see. The aim was to get to the main town square, as I’d read it had a couple of impressive buildings, but that wasn’t going to happen, as they seemed to have pedestrianised the area since we got Tim. However, the parts of the town we saw were wonderful, with some beautiful buildings along the river bank.
We did also encounter French driving at its worst. After realising that we couldn’t go down the road we wanted, we were left in no-man’s land in a bus lane, with a French female driver refusing to let us in. She was even moaning about us. Thanks for the understanding for a foreign driver – and here’s a photo of the miserable woman. Judging by the state of her car, I suspect she’s a bit of an aggressive motorist.
All caught up!
I never thought of it, but I guess that many candles would give off a fair amount of heat!!
Great pictures, of course, Cheryl... and I know what you mean about the inconsiderate driver, I had to deal with one of those yesterday!!
PassPorter's Free-Book to Walt Disney World It’s hard to believe anything is free at Walt Disney World; but there are actually a number of things you can get or do for little to no cost. This e-book documents over 200 free or cheap tips to do before you go and after you arrive. You could save a considerable amount of money following these tips. Perhaps more importantly; you can discover overlooked attractions and little-known details most people whiz by on their way to spend money. Click here to see free sample pages from the e-book! Get this popular e-book free of extra charges when you join the PassPorter's Club for as little as $4.95. A club pass includes access to all our other e-books; e-worksheets; super-size photos; and more! This e-book is also available for separate purchase in the PassPorter Online Store for just $5.95.
About This Page: 
Like
Thank
Pixie Dust
PassPorter Guide Author
Without that scenery, I couldn’t see the point. 
,
Holly: 
Claytrgtshooter (Minnie Lor's Hubbie)
Linear Mode
