I have had five passports. Whether I’ll need another is unknown, but many of us are hoping – dreaming – of being able to travel freely again.
Oh my. I was 20 years old and just months away from the adventure of my life. I flew (for the first time) from Boston to Zürich and spent my junior year of college in Fribourg, Switzerland. My passport has stamps from Switzerland, France, Germany, Italy, Greece, Belgium, and The Netherlands.
My first passport was soon to expire (it was good for just five years back then), so I renewed it, in anticipation of a trip to Morocco. A few years later, I returned to Switzerland, then again, then again. I brought my passport with me on a long weekend to Montréal, but I don’t think I needed it. There was also a vacation to The Netherlands.
HAHAHA! I was just a few months away from getting married, but I wasn’t as scared as I look in this photo. We were going to St. Lucia for our honeymoon, so I needed to renew my passport. We traveled to London on this passport, too.
Next up was the new passport I needed for our trip together to Switzerland. I’d been to ‘la belle Suisse’ many, many times since that first journey in 1978, but I was looking forward to showing my husband. Born to an Austrian mother, he’d done plenty of traveling before we met – to Salzburg and England and countless times to scuba-dive in the Caribbean. We took a couple of trips to Switzerland, in 2007 and again in 2009, and drove to Montréal in 2010.
This is my current passport photo – who IS that old woman, anyway? I wasn’t allowed to wear the thick black-framed eyeglasses that are as much a part of me as my blue eyes. And I probably should have worn more makeup. It’s my deer-in-the-headlights look. But I’ve got this passport until 2026. I’ve traveled back to Switzerland twice on this passport, both times alone, both times with the intention of getting a book out of the trip. That did happen in early 2017 – my novel Villa del Sol was a result. But the last trip, in March 2020, was ill-fated, and COVID-19 had me returning home just three days later.
So we wait. For mass vaccinations, for immunity, for the chance to travel again, under circumstances more normal. Until then, I dream.
Martha Reynolds Writes 
Great photos and lovely travel memories! Thanks for writing this, Martha. it certainly brought to mind so many of my own wonderful international trips, which began at age 13! My mother and I went to Spain and Portugal on a fun charter/tour with a group. In fact, one of the last trips that Mom took was with me; we traveled to Rome, Venice, and Florence in Italy, and that time, we made it into our own extraordinary “tour.”
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I love this, Margaret.
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Well, some travel I want to do belongs to my own country, but some not.
Let met say some:
1. NYC- it has been since August 2006 I have been
2. Seattle
3. England, but this time only in London (didn’t get the full gist of the city when I went to England)
4. Well, this sound confusing- but I hope to visit either Mexico or Spain: I hope to see Les Mis in Spanish
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So many places, Meg!
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Well, Seattle is the birthplace of Starbucks, one of the reasons I want to go there. Due to living in the southeast, barely get to visit states in the west.
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I just came across my old passports while searching for something else. I am sorry that I laughed at some of your photos, but it reminded me of a time going through customs and the guy looking at me and then my photo and then again when finally he said that the photo didn’t look like me. I told him that was probably a good thing, lol.
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I laughed, too! I was at my best in the second one – 24, as thin as I ever would be, footloose.
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What a great personal history. 5 passports! Yikes!
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I’m grateful to have had so many opportunities, Jacqui 🧡
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I too am waiting for an opportunity to travel again….even in our own country. Let’s hope that 2021 brings the pandemic under control so our dreams will come true!
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Shot in the arm! 💜💜💜
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