When I count the countries I’ve visited I may “cheat” a little. For example, I consider Scotland, England, Northern Ireland and Wales all separate, not just UK which would only be one! I also include some Republics otherwise I might only have 195 as travel destinations! Interestingly there are 254 Country flags in the World….of course, 26 of them are from Afghanistan.

By my most recent count (my way) Mauritius was number 150 of flag bearing places that I was lucky enough to enter. I was rewarded by this amazing welcome.

There have been many repeat journeys to various spots on the globe. For example I’ve been to China, Australia, Mexico, Peru, France and Canada at least 10 times. My list of five or more journeys include the countries of South Africa, Germany, Italy, Argentina and Japan.

My passports include way too many stamps that are identical from countries entered at least two times.

Which one is my favorite? I get asked that frequently and my go to answer is the one I hope to get to next. However, Antarctica is definitely one of the nature’s finest art galleries, Bhutan really is a happy place and more than a few have people checking out their maps: Lesotho, Brunei, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Liechtenstein, Andorra, Suriname and Azerbaijan.

I think travel is one of the greatest continuing educations for the elderly…at least for me!