What is the very first date stamped in your first passport?
 

And where did you go? Who did you go with? Any special memories?

And if this stamp was a country you could drive to (whether you did drive or not - I'm thinking Mexico from US, or European country to EU country, etc.) what was the date of your first passport stamp when you crossed an ocean? Same questions as above - where did you go, who with, any special memories to share....

well, I no longer have my first passport, but I think they did still passports across EU borders in those days.....

I was 10 and we went to Majorca, specifically Magaluf, which, if any of you know anything about Majorca, is the most touristy, package holiday, sun sea and sand, get your all day english breakfasts here sort of nightmare resort I wouldn't dream of going to now. But, at 10 years old, I thought it was PARADISE.

Kate! Nice to see you. How is the villa in Apulia? Still want to hear about the news and your sister's news on hers as well...

>What is the very first date stamped in your first passport?<

Sept. 12, 1793.

The passport was signed by T. Jefferson.

It isn't actually stamped, the Immigration Agent attached a visa with a seal.

((I))

I was 14, I was by myself, I'd saved up my pocket and paper round money and I'd bought a train ticket to Euston and a Skyways Coach Air ticket to Beauvais.

I proudly pulled out the British Visitor's Passport I'd bought for 7/6d and watched it get stamped.

August 1963. Went through Customs, clutching the copy of the Searchers' Sweets for My Sweet I'd bought for my French penfriend (6/8d at NEMS: that week - like 32 other weeks that year - a local group was at No 1)

Prat seriously thought the local stuff they played on Salut les Copains was worth lstening to. Never trusted a Frenchman's judgement since.

It was 15 years later before I could afford to fly an ocean. New York wasn't one tenth as alien as a culture that rated Richard Anthony.

My first stamp was at Heathrow on the 14th of September, 1971. I was a college sophomore taking a semester abroad.

On December 1 of that year I crossed to Calais, then continued on by train to Rome. I returned to the UK on December 20th, and to the USA on the 27th. I didn't return to Europe for a long while.

The passport picture shows me with my hair parted in the middle, tied back in a ponytail, and sporting a moustache and Frank Zappa or Apollo Ohno style patch of fur on my chin. I returned well-groomed, sporting a Van Dyke, and garbed in a gray herringbone cashmere sportcoat. My wished they'd sent me to England years earlier.

Great thread.

That would be &quot;My <i>parents</i> wished . . . &quot;

June 1970 at Schiphol on a college choir concert tour which lasted 6 weeks, visited 6 countries, and cost each of us a whopping $450 that included most meals, flights, ground transportation, various sightseeing tours, etc.

We were given two additional weeks to be totally on our own and I chose to spend the time in London. I rented a room at a hotel named the Kiwi Hall in Earl's Court. That cost 1 Pound per night and I had a two-week Tube Pass and lived by the &quot;Europe on $5 a Day&quot; guidebook.

One of my most vivid memories was of the night one of the two busses were put up in a &quot;hotel&quot; near Stratford that had been used for the filming of a movie entitled, &quot;The Haunting of Hill House&quot; and the house was kind of a low-end Gosford Park with this adorable Great Dane running up and down the hallways.

I'm glad I didn't know then what I know now!

That would be April 15, 1968 stamped in Iceland. Special occasion you bet. That was our honeymoon. Took an Icelandic Airline turboprop (it was the least expensive then) to Iceland for three days and on to Luxembourg for a few days, train to Paris for a week, rental car to Switzerland, drive back to Paris after 10 days and then train to Brussels for a few days and back to Luxembourg for the flight home. It was the first time I had ever been more than 700 or so miles from home, same for DW not counting her immigrating to US as a toddler. I had little idea what to expect in Iceland and it was fantastic. Loved the countryside in Luxembourg. Paris went far beyond my fantasies. I can't think of a better and more romantic place for a honeymoon (maybe Venice). It was our first stay at the Hotel du Danube - a hotel to which we have returned several times. We had a beautiful room in the attic with a small balcony overlooking rue Jacob. Perfect! In Geneve we stayed at the Hotel Regina with a balcony overlooking the lake. It was a wonderful place. Don't remember the hotel name in Lucerne, but it too overlooked the lake and the old covered bridge. In Grindlewald, when it was still small and before all the tourists, we stayed at the Silberhorn. Our room's view was of the Jungfrau. We received new year cards from the owners of the Silberhorn for years until the hotel passed to new management. We had arrived in Grindlewald without reservations and looking at the pole with all of the town's hotel names on it while waiting for a herd of cows to cross the road, we saw the name Silberhorn followed by the Hebrew letters for kosher. We had to see what a kosher hotel in the wilds of Switzerland looked like and it exactly fit my mind's picture of a Swiss Chalet.

We have since been back to most of these places on other trips and plan to recreate our honeymoon trip for our 40th anniversery coming up in 2008. I really believe that our fairly lengthly honeymoon, with its shared experiences further bonded us as a couple and played an important part in the longevity of our marriage.

July 9, 1968 - SFO

No longer have the passport but it would have been stamped June, 1948 when my mother and I visited my grandparents in Darwen, Lancashire. We also went to Scotland for the Ayr races. Met my future wife in Gourock and married her 10 years later.

Sometime in July, 1966. I was 14. I passed an adult eduction art history course, and if students passed it, we could go on a 3 week art history tour of Italy and Greece. Swissair to Zurich which punched the passport, then to Milan...etc.
It took years to get back and then the new passport was stamped in Paris.

I don't think I have the passport, or at least I don't know where it went. But first stamp was Tokyo Haneda (Narita wasn't built yet), when I was 6 weeks old.

I got my first passport stamp in 1975 when my girlfriend (now my wife) and I went to France. We arrived in Paris in September on an Air France 747 from Toronto, I think it was.

We spent a couple of weeks in Paris and Strasbourg and then a couple of weeks in England and Scotland visiting her family.

Anselm

I no longer have my first passport, but the first date was in July 1987. I was 27 and traveling to Cancun - way, way before Cancun became what it is today. I traveled by myself, and ended up having the best vacation of my 20s! First time I tried snorkeling, and coming face to face with Mayan ruins was something I shall truly never forget.

First passport stamp when I crossed an ocean was in August 1998. I was 38 and traveled to Israel with my mother. Israel still stands out the most fascinating place I've ever visited. But I do have to say I was very impressed with the medical services provided there: after experiencing some medical problems, I was correctly diagnosed as being hyper-thyroid, something the US doctors had never been able to figure out.

March 2001, Easter sunday. I was 22 and it was in London, my first vacation overseas.

Tracy

Went to Canada, Mexico and Cuba..in the dark ages.. no passports needed. First passport stamp , 1963.. London and the countryside, meeting my DH's relatives and developing a great fondness for the UK.

July 1998. I never had a passport for any of my Mexico or Canada trips before then.

First stamp was the Netherlands - the beginning of my 9-week study abroad trip in Europe. What I wouldn't give to go back and do that trip again!

October 1958, sailed from New York to Bremerhaven Germany to join husband in Army

March, 1985 at age 15. Toured eight countries in Europe on that trip and I've been hooked ever since.