JUST SAYING

Passport stamps for Europe... remember those? Well, they’re back – and Adrian Bridge feels a bit sentimental about it all

As a passionate traveller, I’m a fan of minimum fuss at borders enabling speedy entry to another country and another adventure. Which is why I did a double take before boarding the Eurostar from London to Paris this month, when the French officer at border control took one look at me and my UK passport – and gave it a stamp.

What? A French stamp in my passport? I don’t think I’ve had one since, er, 1972… The officer gave a Gallic shrug and waved me on my way. What did you British expect? You left the EU.

The resumption of passport stamping on entering and leaving the EU – a means of monitoring how long UK visitors stay in the Schengen area – happened at the start of the year but, as for many, my travel plans had been on hold and this was my first trip abroad since the change.

It was a dinky little stamp: the letter “F” circled at the top, an arrow denoting entry, a picture of a train signifying method of travel and the inscription LFT LONDRES.

How wonderful! In one fell swoop, the child and youthful traveller in me had been reawakened. Incurable collectors of travel mementos like me have always enjoyed looking at stamps in their passport and remembering the journeys they presaged or concluded – and were just a tiny bit upset when, for most European countries, the practice ceased.

Somewhere at home I have a passport filled with stamps I collected on an overland journey to India when I was 18 – Turkey, Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan. Another, from the time I was a correspondent in the divided Berlin, is almost completely full of stamps from the Deutsche Demokratische Republik (East Germany). Powerful memories.

This week, as I left the EU to return to the UK, I received a new stamp from a border crossing in Germany: one with a plane, an exit sign, the letter “D” and the inscription BERLIN BRANDENBURG.

The new airport – talked about for decades – finally opened last year and, after a slow start, I can confirm that it is now up and running. I have a stamp in my passport to prove it.

In one fell swoop, the child and youthful traveller in me had been reawakened

On the same page: Adrian couldn’t have been more thrilled with his stamps for France and Germany