On the road (1) – Six countries, nine days COMPLETED - Page 40 - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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Great updates, Cheryl! I'm glad you made it up all those hills... the views did seem worth it in the end... maybe! I especially like this shot of you guys:
Wednesday 24 March – part five: two different currencies and countries...
Our next stop was just a couple of miles down the drive, at Schaffhausen. This wasn’t originally on my itinerary at all, but I figured as we were so close, why not go and have a look? Once again, our parking luck continued and we were just a couple of minutes walk from the main town centre.
We had already seen the start of the town centre and knew that it was going to be lovely, but as we walked down a bit further and turned a corner, we saw even more stunning buildings. Almost every one of them seemed to have either the date that they were built or little designs on them, sometimes animals, sometimes humans. It was fascinating to see.
As we walked through the town, we managed to find somewhere that sold blank CDs, so were able to stock up on those again.
From there, we headed back to the car, as our parking time was up. As we walked, Mark suggested that we have a little “something”. As we were passing McDonald’s, I suggested getting some fries and he agreed. When we got in there, I also spotted Magnum Classic McFlurry’s, so had to try one of those. It was very rich, but very good.
We got back to the parking space and tried to eat our goodies, but someone spotted us going to the car and was waiting for us to leave. As Mark said, he hates it when someone does it to him, so we moved a little further down and moved into a parking space to eat there. As we did, with the engine running, a woman tapped on the window. She spoke German to Mark and I’m sorry, but I was lost. Where’s Sabine when you need her? Mark told her we didn’t understand and she switched to English, saying that usually people didn’t leave their engines running when parked. Fair enough, so we headed off.
It was back through the roadworks again and again some cow sightings!
This time, instead of heading for Zurich, we headed for Konstanz. Now this is actually just over the border in Germany, and just before we got there, we passed through customs. Of course, there was no-one on patrol at all, but it was still nice to have it at least marked. It felt very weird and I tried to wrap my head around it, the idea that on one side of the water, you were in Switzerland with its own currency and, on the other side, you were in Germany with another currency. To be honest, the whole concept messed with my head a bit...
We drove through Konstanz, with me snapping away as we drove...
We were soon on the lakefront and I knew the hotel would be here, as I had booked a lakeview room. We quickly found the hotel and parked up out front and headed inside to check in. We were offered a welcome drink, a choice of water, orange juice or sparkling wine. Mark went for the orange juice, while I went for the sparkling wine and very nice it was too. It was a beautiful place.
We headed upstairs with everything, with me still clutching my sparkling wine, as I had been told that would be no problem.
We threw open the door to the room, well, after unlocking the door – it was very odd to have an actual key, you don’t get many hotels with those any longer : - and the room was huge! I was really pleased with it and the view was pretty impressive too....
We didn’t have long to appreciate it, as we needed to move the car from outside the front of the hotel and into the public car park just round the corner. That done, we had some downtime at the room, with me having a continual argument with the laptop about copying photos to CDs, an argument I eventually won.
I also got a few more photos of the beautiful view outside:
About 7.00, we started to get hungry, so we headed out. The town was quieter than either of us had expected. There seemed to be plenty of places as we drove in, so we were sure that we wouldn’t need to resort to the McDonald’s next to our hotel, but as we walked, that began to look more of a possibility. There were certainly some unusual sights here...
Let’s just say the window displays in this shop were very explicit!
We went into a bookshop and I managed to find a book about Lake Bodensee or Lake Constance (it has two names, depending which language you use) and I got that. I did browse a clothes shop, but no dresses in there for my sister-in-law’s upcoming wedding either.
We saw some restaurants, but none were really doing much for us. Before we hit McDonald’s, I suggested going into the shopping centre near our hotel, figuring there might be some places to eat in there. The first couple didn’t do anything for us, but then we saw a Chinese that looked promising. Thankfully the girl who served us spoke English and most of the dishes were named in English, so we could work out what they were.
I went for the pineapple fish curry, which wasn’t too spicy...
Mark had the wonton soup, followed by Saigon duck.
We were both very impressed with our dishes and agreed that this was good value for money, as the whole meal, including drinks, only came to €18.50 ($25) – see what I mean about this different country, different currency messing with your head? For the moment, we’re back into Euros!
We wandered back from there to the hotel. I have to say here how cold the night was, compared to the beautiful day we had had. It was a nasty shock to the system. From there, it was back to the room
and off to bed, after another lengthy fight with the laptop vs. CDs, with me winning that!
Today we drove 84 miles. The weather today was dry and sunny with temperatures in the low 70s. The best thing today was the city combo tour of Zurich. The worst thing today was the hike back up from the Rheinfall. The funniest thing today was us trying to order our Chinese in the evening. Today we tried going up to Uetilberg And the result was it was quite a hike, but worth it for the views. The most magical moment today was seeing the Rheinfall.
More great pictures! What a great room! I stayed at a Golden Tulip hotel in Germany when I was there for business (I still have the pen from the hotel). Must be a chain! Great dinner! More please!
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.
More great pictures! What a great room! I stayed at a Golden Tulip hotel in Germany when I was there for business (I still have the pen from the hotel). Must be a chain! Great dinner! More please!
It is a chain. They had information in the room and it's a worldwide chain, but I think it trades under various different names around the world.
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The buildings in the one town were so interesting! I love how every town in Switzerland has seemed so clean. Your hotel looks very nice and the view was really beautiful, especially at night.
Going back a bit, I have to say I'm all for blowing up a snowman. Anything to make summer nice and long works for me!
Also loved that shot of the tree growing around the fence. That's something you don't see every day!
Beautiful waterfalls, not-so-beautiful hike upon leaving them though. Yikes!
And I'm glad the Golden Tulip didn't disappoint!
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Thursday 25 March – part one: where are the donkeys and the cows?
The day started off very bright and sunny, with sunlight streaming into our room, so I had to get up and explore further to see what daylight had brought. The sun was rising over the lake in front of us, so I got some shots:
Sadly, a few minutes later, the cloud had covered it up somewhat, but it still made for a neat scene ahead of us:
We also found these fellows on our windowsill:
We headed out before 9.00, with me making full use of the receptionist’s English to get stamps for all the postcards I’d been writing and paying for those in some of the remaining Swiss francs I had left. That done, I checked out and got some information about Mainau Island, which I’d noticed in the book I’d bought last night and fancied checking out. I was worried that maybe it wouldn’t open until 10am, but not a bit of it, as it turned out they were open from sunrise to sunset every day.
We headed off that way and, before long, we were there and we were one of only five cars there.
We paid our €15.90 each ($21.50), which did seem a bit steep, but from the photos I’d seen, I was sure we wouldn’t be disappointed.
We certainly had a heck of a walk ahead of us. We saw a sign saying that it was 500 metres to the restaurant and that was literally just after the first bridge. We got some beautiful views of Lake Bodensee as we crossed the bridge. It was shimmering in the early morning sun and looked lovely.
Then we were on the island itself and were greeted by this topiary:
There were also lots of crocuses in flower:
And we were treated to another couple of stunning topiaries – I’m sure I don’t need to tell you that they’re a duck and her ducklings and a peacock.
We walked through the children’s play area and then headed down towards the petting farm, as I had seen the map and knew that there were meant to be both donkeys and cows there. Well, I didn’t score too well. Only one donkey was to be seen out there and he didn’t want to get too close to me. The others headed inside to eat, which I guess is fair enough. Food versus posing for cameras, well I’m sure you’d make the same choice too.
As to where on earth the cows were, I have no idea. Their field was empty and, although we saw lots and lots and lots of goats and one loan brown mountain sheep, there were no cows anywhere.
Mark wandered through an area made out of a huge tree, which was fascinating:
We carried on walking and saw lots of work being done on the various beds, including the shrub gardens. I guess it’s like visiting Disney in the quiet season. They know it’s not going to be that busy, so that do all the work then.... and in a way, it’s good to see maintenance being done. At least none of the beds they were working on were anywhere near flowering.
Did you look inside the Sprite's home? Was he in?!
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It was a beautiful place. 
: - and the room was huge! 
I was really pleased with it and the view was pretty impressive too.... 
They had information in the room and it's a worldwide chain, but I think it trades under various different names around the world.
Their field was empty and, although we saw lots and lots and lots of goats and one loan brown mountain sheep, there were no cows anywhere. 
Deb
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