Top Five Favorite Passport Stamps

The following list discusses not necessarily the most aesthetically attractive of the 75 or so passport stamps I've received, but rather the stamps I'm most proud of, for whatever reason.

1. Luxembourg, Entry, Findel Airport, 1 June 2006
Of all the Schengen-area countries, Luxembourg may be the most difficult to get a stamp from. Every other Schengen country has a non-stop flight from the United States. At the time I visited, Luxembourg's only commercial airport was served from but three countries outside of the Schengen zone - England, Switzerland, and the Czech Republic. There are no land or water borders with non-Schengen countries either. To get the Luxembourg stamp, you must first go to one of those three countries, then find a direct flight to Findel. I managed to do so, booking a side trip on VLM Airlines from London-City Airport when I was in the UK anyway. I also had to endure a four-hour delay thanks to an undetonated shell of WWII ammunition being found near the airport, which put a freeze on all flights.

2. Uruguay, Entry, Puerto Madero Pre-Clear (Buenos Aires), 10 June 2002
June 10, 2002 was one of those days where I woke up and decided to go to another country. I was spending a week in Buenos Aires, and after getting somewhat bored with BA itself, decided to go check out Colonia in Uruguay, which was an hour-long high-speed boat ride away. After arriving at the ferry terminal not nearly early enough (since we needed to stand in separate lines for ticket reservation, ticket purchase, departure tax, and passport control), we somehow secured passage to Uruguay as a completely gratuitous sidetrip from what was already a vacation to a random destination.

3. Austria, Exit, Berg Border Crossing, and
Slovakia, Entry, Petrzalka Border Crossing, 13 November 2003
On a trip to Vienna, I decided to take advantage of the close proximity of Bratislava to visit another (non-Schengen) country. I had anticipated on taking the train, but a rare strike by the Austrian national rail workers forced to me to hunt down a bus instead. After buying the ticket, I then found out that I needed to get the ticket endorsed for a specific bus departure (which was a fortunate discovery, since the bus quickly filled up). When the bus came to the border, there were full exit and entry controls on both sides, allowing me to get four passport stamps from my round trip. The Austrian stamp was the first land-border Schengen stamp I had ever received.

4. Egypt, Entry, Taba Border Crossing, 5 August 2005
This entry stamp required some serious advance preparation. My plan was to cross into Egypt from Eilat, Israel, and take a bus to Cairo. Egypt gives visas on arrival at the Cairo Airport, but if you cross in from Israel, you can only get a visa for the coastal resorts in the Sinai peninsula. Anyone seeking to travel further into the country needed a visa obtained in advance. First, I needed to send off my passport to the state department to get additional pages inserted, since the Egyptian Consulate needed a full page for the visa. Then, I needed to apply for the visa itself, sending in a $15 money order with my application, passport, photo, and return envelope. Finally, with the visa in hand, I set off from Israel early in the morning, anticipating massive crowds and long lines at the border. Fortunately, the process was quick and straightforward, and I received my first and only entry stamp with the date written in non-Western letters and numbers.

5. Italy, Entry, Domodossola Train Station, 20 May 2007, and
Germany, Entry, Friedrichshafen Ferry Port, 21 May 2007
Both these stamps were obtained from land (or water) borders on my recent trip to Switzerland. Both required me to exercise a little bit of initiative for me to claim the stamp. For Italy, I was lucky that the customs officers were even carrying a stamp, and I had to insist they stamp the passport after they tried to just hand it back to me. For my efforts, I received my second-ever train stamp (after boarding the Eurostar train in Brussels). For Germany, I had to inquire of the customs officers where I could get a stamp, and they directed me into the nearby customs office, 20 minutes before it closed for the day. (I had hope the port would give me an elusive boat stamp, but instead, it was the car stamp, since the ferry handled vehicular traffic.)