Back in the day prior to open borders in Europe, we had to wait in long lines at each European border crossing.Sometimes it total car search and each time a review of our passports, international driver’s license and other documents.
These are a few of the smaller countries we visited during our nearly 20 years being stationed there with the US Army. Besides the larger countries we also made our way into Monaco, The Vatican, Gibraltar and a few others.
These stamps are from Andorra, Luxembourg, Liechtenstein, San Marino, Maltaand the Channel Tunnel (aka Chunnel). The Chunnel crossing required additional stamps at Brussels and on the English side. When taking the English Channel ferries, we had to get stamps and searches at Calai,s France and Dover, England.
Immediately after the wall came down and Eastern Bloc countries opened up, the trains stopped at the borders and armed guards would board the train and examine everyone’s papers. A few who did not pass the muster were disembarked with the guards and we did not see them again for the remainder of our travels. A couple of our military travelers who did not have the correct or current papers were escorted to the nearest US Embassy to be further vetted.
