I’m fortunate. I’ve enjoyed lots of travel and had good experiences as I’ve done so. For much of the time it’s been business travel but a lot has also been vacations when I’ve shared it with my family.
In this and subsequent posts I’ve tried to be consistent with what is a country. It’s an independent self-governing entity, generally speaking I guess it would be a member of the United Nations in its own right (although there is one exception to this viz Taiwan). This means that Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland don’t count, neither do the current ex Yugoslavia nations, several of which I visited before the breakup, nor the Turkish part of Cyprus. However it does include the so called micro states of which I’ve visited three.
| 1947 |  | South Africa: it’s where I was born so by definition it’s the first country I’ve visited. In those days it was still very much Apartheid times so it was the old flag. |
| 1949 |  | United Kingdom: I moved here when my parents’ marriage broke up and it’s the country from which I take my nationality, for better or for worse! |
| 1966 |  | France: people didn’t travel much back then but students tended to be more adventurous and I spent three weeks in Europe before starting university |
| 1966 |  | Monaco: hardly a real country but meets the criteria. We were camping close by so it was easy to pay a visit and check out the casinos |
| 1966 |  | Italy: we’d driven east from Marseilles so we took the opportunity to add another country to our journey. But it was just an afternoon |
| 1966 |  | Switzerland: on our way back to the UK we drive through the French Alps and stopped in Geneva where we could fill up with cheaper petrol |
| 1967 |  | Vatican City: another microstate which I visited as a part of a longer stay in Italy when I travelled down as far as Rome. |
| 1967 |  | Luxemburg: our travel back from Italy enabled us to to overnight in other countries en route. It was a matter of three countries in three days. |
| 1967 |  | Belgium: a friend from college lived in Brussels so it seemed natural to drop in and see him on the way home |
| 1970 |  | Ireland: the college hockey team had a tour to Ireland and were a man short. I learnt some of the rules and made up the numbers (picture above) |
So that’s it for the first 20 or so years: just 10 countries including Monaco and Vatican City. This takes me to the end of my university days so that part II will cover my years in the oil industry and life in the Far East.
Note that if I’d been inclined to cheat I could have included England, Wales, Scotland and Norther Ireland in the above.
David Jenkins' weblog 
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