And Now the Countries...

A couple of blogs ago I wrote about the continents I had visited; there are four, if I fudge just a bit on South America. I thought today I would look at the countries within those continents I have been to. And a bit of fudging may be in order again. But more on that later.

Starting with this hemisphere: obviously the United States. But I’ve also been to Canada, Mexico, Costa Rica, and Panama.

Going east, I’ve been to these countries, thanks to the U.S. Navy: The Philippines and Japan for sure. And now for the bit of fudging: I never actually touched the soil of Vietnam; however, I spend six months on a ship off the coast, mostly hunkered down in Damage Control Central, while the Galveston’s 6-inch guns hammered Vietnam. We did pull into Da Nang Port once, so our admiral could meet up with other muckity-mucks. But I didn’t leave the ship. So, do I count Vietnam or not? Hey, six months looking at the country ought to qualify, so I think I’ll count it.

Heading in the other direction, I have visited these countries compliments of the Navy: Majorca (which Wiki tells me is part of Spain); Italy, Sicily, mainland Spain, France, Malta, and Crete.

The count is now up to 13 (or 14—see paragraph three).

On later trips to Europe on my own, I visited these countries: Great Britain, the Netherlands, Germany, Switzerland, Croatia, Greece, and Luxembourg. On these trips I revisited many of the countries I had been to before, but in terms of the count, I won’t duplicate them.

So, the final count: 20 (or 21—see paragraph three). That’s not bad for 75 years. And I hope there are a few more in the future!