A return to Switzerland – land of mountains, museums and moos! COMPLETED 12/4 - Page 70 - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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.
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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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So we encourage you to stay in touch with us and your fellow community members wherever works best for you!
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Could be worse as I'll always remember those steps in the inside of Blarney Castle in Ireland, that were so steep, narrow and dark in there. You talk about giving a claustrophobic a breakdown! This would be the place! This all to do the over touristy thing and just kiss the Blarney Stone! I did it, but not one of my fondest travel memories.
Thanks for the heads up. I keep thinking maybe we'll spend more time in Ireland one day and that's one of the things you have to see there, but it doesn't sound like much fun to me...
Thanks for the heads up. I keep thinking maybe we'll spend more time in Ireland one day and that's one of the things you have to see there, but it doesn't sound like much fun to me...
I've also heard rumors that the locals do things on to the Blarney Stone, as they find it funny that people are kissing it. Use your imagination to think about what kind of er....liquid, would be er....emptied on to the stone! EW!!!
I agree, you can absolutely skip kissing the blarney stone! You have to lie on the stone on your back and then hang practically upside-down to kiss it. I said no, thanks!
I've also heard rumors that the locals do things on to the Blarney Stone, as they find it funny that people are kissing it. Use your imagination to think about what kind of er....liquid, would be er....emptied on to the stone! EW!!!
I agree, you can absolutely skip kissing the blarney stone! You have to lie on the stone on your back and then hang practically upside-down to kiss it. I said no, thanks!
Sorry for the delay in posts, but now I'm back at home, I'll be updating this regularly again...
Thursday 5 September – part six: more stunning Swiss scenery
From here, we were heading next to Bad Ragaz, which would take us a different route, and wow, what a route it was! It was just breath taking scenery the whole way along.
At one point, we stopped at an overlook to get some photos….
… but all the other photos are taken on the road.
We kept running into tunnels, and again we had another one, the famous San Bernando Pass, which was only about four miles long, so a baby compared to the St. Gottard Pass.
Every time we came out of a tunnel, we had totally different scenery, and it’s much more Swiss than we’d seen in the Italian part of the country, if that makes sense.
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Having driven through Colorado and other mountainous states, I'm trying to compare Switzerland's mountains and I come up with nothing. They are just on a totally different level. What a gorgeous drive!!!
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Tanya
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Having driven through Colorado and other mountainous states, I'm trying to compare Switzerland's mountains and I come up with nothing. They are just on a totally different level. What a gorgeous drive!!!
Glad to see this TR has returned! How dare you interrupt this with a trip to Hawaii and WDW!
Love the scenery of the mountains. I'm amazed at the amount of tunnels in Switzerland and couldn't believe it when I was there. I like it how signs are posted on the length of each tunnel. I was hoping there would be some photos of your boys!
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October 6, 2017-Enjoying an amazing dinner at Victoria & Albert's with PP's Dot and Drew
My TR from my most recent trip is now underway. Includes: Universal Studios Florida, Disney World and Sea World Orlando Trifecta TR -Updated December 10th! TR is now COMPLETED!
Thursday 5 September – part seven: now this is true relaxation!
Soon we were heading towards Bad Ragaz, our next stop of the day. We were heading for Tamina Therme, which as you’ll see from the website is an amazing place. I got a few photos from the outside, although obviously none inside…
We headed in, and thankfully, unlike Yverdon-les-Bains, the woman on reception spoke perfect English, and explained things to us. Towels were available (another bonus from our previous experience), although the changing room area was very familiar to us.
I did manage to snap a photo of the locker area, as no-one else was around. Look how many they have! The numbers go up to 700…
Fortunately there was nowhere near that many people in there today. I reckon we saw maybe 50 other people, which was perfect. We headed first for the attraction pool, and the first things we made a beeline for were these water shoots. That’s the best description I can come up with anyway!
We soon realised that there were attractions all the way around the pool. On one side, they had various versions of chairs you could sit on with jets in them, which were just heavenly. On the other side, the jets of water were either underneath your feet or in the side of the pool, so they could massage your abdomen, calves, knees or thighs, depending what level they were at.
It was lovely in there, and we spent ages trying everything out. It was also a very pleasant temperature at 34C. Once we’d tried everything (and trust me, it took a long time to do that ), we tried out the whirlpool, which was a bit hotter at 36.5C.
When we came out of there, we got some warm towels, and wow, these things were massive. It was a lovely treat to have warm towels, although my goodness, they got cold quickly.
Then we sampled the warm water grotto (39C) and the cold water grotto (17C). I went up to my waist in the hot water one, but only one foot made it into the cold water one, it was such a shock to the system!
The next one we tried was the exercise/sports pool, which was 32.5C, where we swam for a little while, enjoying the whole thing to ourselves.
Then we heade+d outside into this area. To the left of the photo was a lazy river area, just like you get at the Yacht and Beach Club, which carried you round and round, without you having to put much effort in, which was a huge amount of fun.
We swam around a bit in the rest of the pool, before heading in to enjoy the attraction pool for a little while. My plan was to get some dinner at the pool restaurant, but sadly they didn’t have any menus in English, and the woman there didn’t seem to speak much English, so we were going to struggle. Had it not been for the fact I don’t eat meat, I’d have risked it, but I didn’t want to chance getting something I really didn’t want.
We headed back to the changing rooms, and got dressed, and headed out. Here’s a shot of the changing room area:
Here, you pay your fee when you leave, which makes sense, as if you decide to stay longer, then all they do is charge it to you. Again, like Yverdon-les-Bains, you get a wrist band, similar to the idea of the Magic Bands that record all your spending.
We headed out through Bad Ragaz…
… and soon we were on the motorway again…
The A is for Austria and the D for Deutschland or Germany, while the FL isn’t for Florida it’s for Furstentum Liechtenstein or Principality of Liechtenstein
… and before long, we arrived in Liechtenstein, our home for the night. It’s cool to be in another country, but I found this such an odd place. Our phone service came from Swisscom and they use the Swiss franc here, and there are no border controls. As such, it feels like an extension of Switzerland, but all the Liechtenstein flags tell you that they’re fiercely proud of their country.
Not long afterwards, we found Vaduz castle, where the Royal family live. It’s a real fairy tale place.
We headed out through Vaduz, the country’s capital city, and started to climb into the mountains…
Liechtenstein cows!
Very cool!
I know Mark wondered where the GPS was taking us, and where the heck our hotel was, but I’d already made the discovery that it was along a very winding road, and my goodness, we knew about it, with one switchback after the next. However, we did get some great views along the way…