An Alphabetical List of Countries Visited

I have no plans to visit all the countries of the world, but I thought it would be fun to see how close I've come to visiting a country that starts with each letter of the alphabet. Because there is some controversy about whether certain entities are countries, I'm using the United Nations list of Member States as my source. I'm also including their two Permanent Non-Member Observer States on my list of countries. There are no countries that start with W (Western Sahara is considered a Non-Self-Governing Territory) or X, so the maximum score is 24. Let's see how I do! 

Photo Source

A
Bahamas, Barbados, Belgium, Belize
Canada, Colombia, Costa Rica
Denmark
Estonia
Finland, France
Germany
H
Italy
J
K
L
Mexico, Monaco
Netherlands, Norway
O
Panama, Portugal
Q
R
Saint Lucia, Spain, Sweden
T
United Kingdom, United States
Vatican City
Y
Z

So my score is 13/24. I'm sad that it isn't 14/24; Luxembourg was supposed to be on that list. Someday. Or maybe I'll visit one of the 8 other L-countries eventually. 

Unless I missed one, my number of countries (as defined by the UN) is 25. Yet, my Visited Countries Map shows 34. That map includes entities like Aruba (Constituent Country) and Gibraltar (British Overseas Territory). I think Aruba is the only one that would make a difference to my alphabetical list.

What is your score out of 24? Let me know in the comments!

Visited Countries Map

Here's what my Visited Countries Map looks like as of today, 9/6/24.

Make your own map here.

At age 52, I have been to 34 different countries. That seems like a pretty high number until I look at the map above and see how little blue there is compared to all the grey. I've only seen a small fraction of everything our world has to offer. 

I know a lot of people who have been to far more countries than I have, including: my parents, my sister and brother-in-law, my aunt and uncle, my sisters-in-law, my nephews, a handful of high school friends, former coworkers, retired friends from church, and virtually every other travel blogger I know. A few have been to well over 100 countries.  

But I know far more people who are much less traveled than I am. There are a lot of reasons for this, obviously. Travel is a privilege that not everyone can afford. Life circumstances and differing abilities can make travel difficult or impossible. Some people travel internationally often, but keep going back to the same one or two places, giving them a very low country count. Others travel extensively through the US, a huge country with enough destinations to last a lifetime, but rarely cross the borders. 

I did some Googling to find out how my stats compare. Needless to say, I found a lot of different information with varying reliability. Here is some of the more trustworthy information I found:

• 71% of Americans have left the United States. 11% have been to 10 or more countries (source)
• 2% of Americans have traveled to more than 31 countries (source)
• The average American adult has been to 3 foreign countries (source)
• People in 27 countries have a stronger passport than those of us in the US (source)
• Roughly 450 people have been to all the countries in the world (source)

Unlike my goal to travel to the five Canadian provinces I haven't visited, I have no plans to visit every country in the world. But there are still several dozen countries on my bucket list. Obviously, there's Luxembourg. And St. Vincent and the Grenadines. Others topping my list include (but are not limited to) Iceland, Switzerland, Austria, Liechtenstein, Poland, Czechia, Hungary, Japan, South Korea, Singapore, Australia, and New Zealand. 

How many countries have you visited? What's still on your bucket list? Let me know in the comments!

Family Fun in Europe, Part 17: Kristiansand

This is my seventeenth post about our family's 2024 trip to Europe. I recommend reading the first, second, third, fourth,  fifth, sixth, seventh, eighth, ninth, tenth, eleventh, twelfth, thirteenth, fourteenth, fifteenth , and sixteenth posts before this one. 

--------

Kristiansand, Norway

On Thursday, August 1, the Sky Princess docked in Kristiansand, Norway. 

 

Steve, Trevor, Kari, Allison, and I opted to walk into town in the morning and explore Kristiansand on our own. My parents had a shore excursion booked later in the day, a train ride. 

Obviously, we had to ask Trevor and Allison to pose by this moose. 

Kristiansand is a fairly large municipality. With 116,000 residents, it's the 6th largest in Norway. The pier area was bustling with tourists and locals. 

We strolled through Otterdalsparken. Locals call it Nupenparken, because the fountains in the park were made by artist Kjell Nupen. 

There were some impressive sand sculptures on display. 

How sad that they are temporary! So much work and impressive detail. 

Horse, not sheep. Norway, not Sweden. 

This is Christiansholm Fortress. 

  

I love taking pictures of Steve taking pictures....

... and then seeing what he captured. 

I'm always delighted to find a manhole cover specific to where I'm visiting. I wish all cities did this. On the other hand, since most don't, it makes it all the more special to find one.

This is Kristiansand Cathedral, completed in 1884. 

  

There was a 30-minute organ concert scheduled to start in 20 minutes, but I didn't get much support when I asked the rest of the group about staying. Nor did anyone opt to join me for a scavenger hunt. 

    

This is Haakon VII, king of Norway for 52 years until his death in 1957. Surprisingly (to me anyway), he was born in Denmark, not Norway. He was crowned King of Norway when the country (a dependency of Denmark until 1814) became independent of Sweden in 1905. 

There were flowers everywhere in Norway. 

We were wandering somewhat aimlessly through town, looking for interesting things. Naturally, we stopped at a grocery store. Those cylinders on the middle shelf are "white cheese." I don't really understand and would like to know more.

There are the smallest rolls of toilet paper I've ever seen. My hand is there for scale. I have small hands. 

I'm nervous about the Salt Sild since there are fish (whales?) on the package. And Salt Skum doesn't exactly draw me in either. 

Self-serve bins like this haven't returned in force in California since they were removed during COVID. You can find some, but they're rare. I wonder if they were removed in Norway and returned, or if their patrons are more trusting of their fellow germy shoppers. 

Next, I convinced the group to pop into the library. I love libraries and they're especially fun to visit when you travel. I went through the children's section looking for familiar books. 

Harry Potter Og Barnets Forbannelse! And Kaptein Supertruse og de Drittleie Doene! (affiliate links)

  

Note to Dav Pilkey: "Captain Superpanty" should appear in a future book. He could be Captain Underpants' Norwegian doppelganger. Hilarity will ensue, I assure you.

"Stupid Pigs" is apparently the same as "Talking Toilets." I have questions. 

Here's another one. Why is there a "Gross" section in the library? They're next to Mysterier, so maybe they're the gory version of mysteries (horror)? I'm confused. 

Looking around the library was a lot of fun. I love the Pac-Man theme. And skewering books to make a tower representing words (pages? books?) read is a neat idea, assuming the books were already damaged and would otherwise have been discarded. 

  

We left the library, and walked down the street and into a candy shop. It was disappointing - mostly American brands we can find at home. Including Jelly Bellies, that are literally made 3 miles from our house. 

  

Next souvenirs. While Steve (pins), Trevor (decks of cards) and Allison (keychains) hunted, I looked at the selection of Engelsk books. 

Norway Yatzy? 

I browsed through the many (many) options for taking home a Norwegian troll. I was not tempted by the small options...

... nor by the surprisingly large ones. It's the size of a toddler. This is a shop for tourists, not locals. Assuming anyone would want this, who has room in their luggage to take it home? Are people paying to ship it? So many questions. 

Next, we popped into McDonald's. Not to eat, of course. We have a strict rule about not eating at places we have at home when we travel. We were there to see what unique things were on the menu. Probably the most surprising was the sweet potato fries. There weren't any regular fries on the menu. The Chili Cheese Tops looked interesting. The Tutti Frutti Sundae appears to be vanilla with colorful sprinkles, but I can't confirm that. 

The streets were getting more crowded and we'd seen everything interesting within a reasonable walking distance, so we began our stroll back toward the ship. 

I wish I'd taken pictures of the various Caution signs I saw during this trip. That would make a fun scrapbook page. 

Kristiansand's Cruise Terminal is in a great location. It's an easy walk to town, but if you don't want to do that, there are lots of shops, restaurants, boat rentals, tours, and more just steps off the ship.  

As we were getting back to the ship, my parents were getting off the ship to go on their train trip. 

We barely got a taste of Norway, but it was enough for me to know I want to come back. That's the beauty of cruises - you get a brief introduction to a lot of places so that you can prioritize where you want to go on return visits. From Kristiansand, we sailed back to Southampton, where the cruise began. Tomorrow I'll tell you more about the cruise as well as our travels home. 

Family Fun in Europe, Part 16: Visby

This is my sixteenth post about our family's 2024 trip to Europe. I recommend reading the first, second, third, fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh, eighth, ninth, tenth, eleventh, twelfth, thirteenth, fourteenth, and fifteenth posts before this one.

--------

Visby, Sweden

On Tuesday, July 30 we arrived in Visby, a Swedish city of about 24,000 on the island of Gotland. Visby is considered the best-preserved medieval city in Scandinavia and has been a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1995. 

  

Steve, Trevor, Mom, and I took a walking tour of Visby. Our guide was such a fast walker we were speed-walking to keep up. And, he had a preference for beelining over the natural terrain instead of taking paved paths. See that lone person? That would soon be us, but I didn't know it when I took the picture. Silly me for thinking we'd use the walkway.

See? Over the hills we go!

We definitely got our exercise in that day! We covered a lot of territory and learned so much from our enthusiastic, well-informed, and eloquent guide. 

The town center of Visby is surrounded by a 2.1 mile long wall.

 Within the wall, there are many stone houses preserved in their original medieval style. 

  

Visby is built on a hill. Fortunately, our tour started at the top and ended at sea level. Good thing! I can't imagine following our guide back uphill through the fields at the end of the tour. 

That's our ship, framed by the church ruins!

This is Visby Cathedral. It was consecrated in 1225 and is the oldest (and best preserved) church building in Visby. It has been a cathedral since 1572. 

  

  

This is town square.  

Our guide gave us five minutes to look around. Naturally, I ran over to the grocery store. 

This is not mix (rimshot). 

The Swedes are extremely fond of toasts upon which to spread fish. 

Choices, choices. I'd choose Soft Musli over Supermusli and Havre Kuddar over Kalas Puffar, even though it has the more appealing packaging. 

I didn't have time to see much else, as our guide was eager to move along. We had some church ruins to visit. I didn't even get a chance to ask why there were concrete sheep in the town square. 

This is Drottens Ruin. It was built around 1240 and abandoned in 1528 during the Reformation. 

I was very surprised that we were allowed to climb around in there and touch whatever we wanted. I opted not to climb the questionable-looking steps, mostly because I was concerned I'd be all the way up the staircase when our guide announced it was time to leave and took off like a gazelle, expecting us to follow immediately. 

Off we zoomed! 

Wait - another sheep? Why? Our guide was too far ahead to ask. 

Fortunately, I got the answer at our next destination. Sheep are a living cultural heritage in Gotland and a symbol of sustainability. Sheep have literally helped shape the landscape and are beloved throughout Visby. 

So what was our next destination? The gorgeous Visby Botanical Garden. 

  

  

  

We passed through the portion of the wall that makes up the boundary of the botanical gardens and there was the Baltic Sea.  

  

This is Almedalan. It's a park, but it's also the location for an informal, weeklong annual summer event. This gathering is a place for "dialogue, exchange and unexpected meetings that help to develop our society." It sounds absolutely fascinating. 

After a fantastic tour, we arrived back at the Sky Princess. 

We loved our time in Visby and can totally see why it's such a popular summertime vacation destination for Scandinavians. We said goodbye to Sweden that evening and sailed on to the final new-to-us country of this trip. I'll tell you all about it tomorrow.