A SHORT PRESENTATION

My name is Raymond Verdoolaege. I live in the town of Assenede, Belgium, close to the border with the Netherlands.

However, I was born in the city of Veurne, which is close to…the French border. Thanks to my parents I discovered hiking in the Belgian Ardennes (La Roche!) and the French Alps (Chamonix!) and this already in the 50s and the 60s.  

Since I studied classical philology at the university of Ghent, I already visited Greece for the first time in 1963 – in those days, mooring at the island of Mýkonos was still quite an adventure. In the years 1967 - 1969 - 1971 and 1972 my wife and I visited the islands of Crete and Santoríni for the first time – there was no electricity on the Lassithi-plain (on Crete) and the island of Santoríni was still unknown and peaceful. When I was a teacher of Latin and French and later on the headmaster of the state secondary school of Zelzate, I took my pupils to Greece for about 3-4 times.  From the ‘80s onwards we traveled as a family all over the Cyclades and the Dodekánisos islands – not a single boat remained unknown to us!  

Since then, the Cycladic isles have become a real fascination for us and especially the islands of Sífnos and Amorgós turned into yearly holiday spots. We found out that hiking is absolutely the best way to gradually discover all the variation and the marvellous places on the Cyclades. Since my retirement in the year 2000 I have found the time to put the large amount of hikes – by now about 275 – on the internet.

I hope you will enjoy this site!  

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I should also mention that I receive a lot of help from my wife Viviane (for the French translations) and from my daughter Annelies (for the versions in English).

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And finally, also the reactions of the users of my site are very helpful: they support me in my wanderings through the Cyclades, they provide me with new ideas, and they sometimes add corrections and supplements. I would thus like to express my special gratitude to all those who reacted enthusiastically on my hiking site: thanks to Pierre Songis (France), for his suggestions and additions, Eddie McLaney from Engeland for his additions on Sérifos and Sífnos; to Eric and Nicole from the Haute Savoie in France, for their ideas on Tínos and Andros; to Hélène and Manu Desgrippes from France, for their precisions about Amorgós en Náxos; to Paolo Canton for his advice on the hikes at Sífnos; to Olivier Gandon for the tip on the hike to the Profítis Ilías at Santoríni; to Régis Le Mer for his information about the frogs of Sérifos; to Ioanna Papastathopoulou for her information about Tínos; to Leendert Sneep for the suggestions about Náxos and Santoríni; to Jean-Antoine Montagnon for his mails about Kýthnos, Kéa and Tínos; to Olivier Monné for his ideas about Síkinos; to Hannelore Kianfar for her information about Andros; to Pascale and Fabrice for their mails about Sérifos and Sífnos; to Anita and Ron from Utrecht, for their information about the cylindrical mill in Steniés (Andros), etc.

I will be looking forward to your reactions!

CONTACT:  Raymond.Verdoolaege at telenet.be

HOME        INTRODUCTION

On the top of the Kálamos, near the Panagía Kalamiótissa, on Anáfi.

In our favorite house in Kámares on Sífnos.

On our balcony with view on the volcano of Santoríni.

Making notes next to the source of Vénjamin on Kéa.

Viviane pours water in the Panagía ta Mángana on Sífnos.