visited 23 countries (10%)

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Samos conversation We were walking down from our apartment at Potami Beach to Karlovassi port in the dark for dinner. When passing the military sentry watching the Turkish coast line in the North he asked: He: Do you like Samos? Me: Yes it is beautiful. And you? He: No. Me: I am sorry for you.

Hello from Chios We have been spending the last couple of days in Karfas on Chios island between Lesbos and Samos. The weather was not really amazing, we had a lot of rain and morning temperatures of around 15 degrees Celsius. We stayed at Marko's place. We were Marko's first vistors this year. It is still very quiet around here. Most of the few tourists we met on the island were Norwegians as 1. there is a direct flight from Oslo and 2. Norwegians prefer Greece in spring when the temperatures are still bearable. Chios is quite a non-touristic island. It does not really need the tourists as in the south of the island the resin of the Mastix shrub is collected and Chios is the only place in the world where the mastix yields the resin which is used a lot for chemical and pharmaceutical purposes. We tried to chew the resin but that is something not really to be recommended as the resin sticks in between the teeth and is very hard to get rid of. The liqueur of Mastix tastes quite nice nevertheless. Our next destination will be Samos island, the ferry is supposed to leave in one hour. There we will do some more hiking if the weather permits it.

Hiking on La Palma, Canary Islands I was on a hiking holiday with my father on La Palma from January 10th to 17th. Though the weather was not perfect (we had two days of rain) we both enjoyed the time tremendously. We stayed in Casa Sara, a small traditional cottage in Puntallana about 10 kilometers north of the capital Santa Cruz. It is part of the turismo rural network of 80 cottages which have been renovated. The doors were a little too low (I am 1.95 m tall) so that I had to bend down when going from one room to the next but at least the bed was 2 meters long. The Cabildo La Palma (local government) recently signposted many hiking paths on the island. At the tourist office in Santa Cruz we got the map "Hiking paths of La Palma" (online in 4 parts: NW, NE, SW, SE) which shows all the major paths on the island. We tried to create round trips by joining different paths together which usually worked quite well. There are two long hiking paths on the island. The first one, the GR 130 (gran recorrido), does the tour of the island and is about 200 kilometers long. Usually it follows the old foot paths. The GR 131 starts in El Puerto de Tazacorte in the West of the island, follows the volcano crater which surrounds the national park Caldera de Taburiente via Roque de los Muchachos (2,423m, highest point of the island) and finishes after 100 kilometers at Faro de Fuencaliente at the South coast. We walked along parts of both paths. From the barbecue and picnic place Refugio del Pilar in the pine forest in the centre of the island we followed the GR 131 North and South. To the North we went along the ridge past Reventon with a radio/tv broadcast station. After that there was a steep descent on a stone track to the church La Virgen del Pino in the caldera. We then walked past the visitors' centre back to Del Pilar on a small road and later on a beautiful hidden path in the woods. From Del Pilar to the South we followed the Ruta de los Volcanos. The first volcano with the steepest ascent was Pico Birigoyo from where we had a beautiful view of the Teide (Teneriffe) above the clouds. We went passed the Crater del Hoyo Negro up to La Deseadas. From there we could see Teneriffe, Gomera and El Hierro. After a small descent on the ridge we turned left to descend another 600 meters in altitude. After more than one and a half hours we joined the runway to the left which lead us back to El Pilar. We did some more hikes. Maybe I'll make an extra page on the holiday.

La Palma is a phantastic island for hiking tours. As temperatures are always around 20 degrees Celsius the occasional rain which often almost immediately evaporates on the skin is quite bearable. In the mountains the weather is nevertheless unsafer. Often Roque de los Muchachos is in the clouds and it rains around there. In the caldera three Germans drowned last year end of November when 120 liters of rain per square meter fell in six hours.

Some other more detailed travel accounts of La Palma:

• 8 day hiking holiday in 2000.
• 1999 trip report of a bird and butterfly watcher.
• Photos plus travelogue.
• 15 days hiking in 1996 in German.
• Links to nine travel accounts in German.

5 places

• Chinesischer Turm, München on a summer evening. After three Maß (liter glasses) of beer the tower becomes blurred in the distance and the focus is on the strangers around you (businessmen, actors, students, tourists, drug dealers, other criminals and ex-cons) to whom you talk as if you had known them for all your life.
• Forest in South Bavaria, walking from Starnberg to Füssen and crossing a deep forest in November. Suddenly the sunlight pierces through the trees. You can see the rays. You feel like in a fairy world.
• Hierro, a Canary Island, arriving by sailing boat at the small harbour of Restinga. Desertlike volcanic landscape around. You take a taxi which takes you up the mountains. Descending from the cab you see cows grazing deep green meadows. The temperature has dropped by ten degrees. You see mist clouds. You are in Scotland for the first time of your life.
• Big Sur, near the coast road there is a place where they sell thousands of wind chimes. Many chimes are suspended outside. On a windy day the metal tubes hit each other and create a natural high-pitch bell symphony.
• Cape Cod, walking along the sand beach for three hours without meeting any other people (before Labor Day it is possible). The noise of the wind and the sea so loud that you can't talk without shouting. It is just you two, the sand, the sea, the wind and the sun.

This post was inspired by the already mentioned excellent French blog JR Files ("Notes, anecdotes, mélanges, et idées").

5 travels (I have made)

• Cycling from Salzburg to Athens in the heat of summer 1982
• My first hitch rom Moers to Firenze 1982
• Frisco / Sonoma / Big Sur in sunny early February 1997
• Sailing from Gomera to Hierro and getting into a storm on the way back in winter 1992
• Walking from Starnberg to Füssen in November 1989

5 travels (I dream of)

• Crossing the Sahara with a salt caravan.
• Crossing the Pacific in a sailing boat.
• One month in a Zen monastery.
• One year in the Northwest Territories.
• Walking along the Appalachian Trail.

Back home The holidays are over and the attacks have begun. Coincidences. They used to fascinate me a lot in the past. Right now they don't mean anything to me anymore. I do not believe in them. A coincidence is a matter of interpretation. Out of the millions of events you pick one and it seems to relate to your own life. Totally random. Selective perception. As long as you think in terms of coincidences you try to make sense of your life.

Bombing Afghanistan is as pointless as rolling Sisyphus's stone up the mountain. The stone will roll back down again and Sisyphus will be in charge of rolling it up again. Afghanistan's Taliban have been supported by the US before and now they will be decimated. But they cannot be eliminated. They are hiding in the mountains and some will survive. They are just a pawn in the game. But a pawn can become very powerful as in chess where it is a potential queen i.e. the dearest piece. And the king is the US. A slow mover but THE piece. Checkmate or stalemate that is the question. The US cannot win this war. They are either going to lose or to draw whatever that will mean.

I had forgotten how nice it was to live in a country where time was so much less precious. Where you are not terrorised by your watch but where people take their time. It must be the light. So bright. The shutters closed so well in our gîte that I was literally blinded by the light the first morning we went swimming in the Mediterranean. A country where people smile and joke and talk. But in the end I felt as a stranger again. Had the feeling that I was only accepted as a cash cow. I was just a tourist. Tourists pay. The native take the money. Grenaches noires are the sweetest grapes I ever tasted. The sweetness almost hurts on the palate. As in almost all holidays there was this bitter aftertaste. Just a preparation for the everyday life attending me in Frankfurt.

Perpignan #1 There will be only very few updates in the following days as Catherine and I are on holiday in the Southern Pyrenees. We have rented a gîte in Saint-Cyprien Plage 30 meters from the beach. The sun is quite discrete and often overshadowed by clouds but there is the sea which is wonderful even at 18 degrees and there are other things in life...