Author and our Hiking Expert
Peter has been there since December 2013
With her characteristic charming persistence, Ursula managed to involve me in the extremely worthwhile work on her Ikaria page. I am honored and I promised her that I would contribute texts on various topics on an irregular basis. Before that, however, I was asked to step out of anonymity a little. Well then:
Since the mid-1960s (fixated on Santorini) I have fallen in love with Greece and especially the Aegean islands. I have been traveling especially to the northern and northeastern parts with my friend Marlies for many years. The knowledgeable travel guide “Nördliche Aegeis” by Rainer Karbe and Ute Latermann-Pröpper proved to be an invaluable help, and I would like to take this opportunity to thank them. The last edition from 1998 is out of print, but is still readily available. The book was published in the “Different Travel” series and actually stands out very positively from the usual publications. If you are not primarily interested in hotel and restaurant information or ferry connections (which are always changing anyway), it still offers a good basis for traveling in this region.
Of course, during our active professional life (teacher and school psychologist), we usually had to limit our visits to the island to two to three weeks. Only with the beginning of great freedom were we able to consider longer stays. In retrospect, we can no longer explain why Ikaria was chosen for this experiment. The first contact in 2009, which was still brief, lasted three weeks. The following year we treated ourselves to two months, and this opportunity gave us the desire to experience the island in winter. From September 2011 to July 2012 we rented a room in Christos Rahes and have known since then that there is interesting island life even outside of the tourist season. In these two years we have made many friendly friendships and acquaintances with locals and “xeni” and now stay here almost all year round. Compared to Reiner Juring, Ursula and other northern European residents, we are undoubtedly still among the “greenhorns”.
I was particularly attracted by the large number of well-preserved footpaths (monopati), some of which were uncovered by activists a few years ago and marked very helpfully. Over the course of the months, I have discovered a large part of these paths, alone and with someone, and have experienced great landscapes in the process. That’s why Ursula sees me as a “hiking expert” – an honorary title that I don’t think I’m entitled to. To whet your appetite, however, I have described three tours that I have taken. There I also refer you to the real experts who are happy to offer visitors guided hikes.