In addition to routes that are suitable for day trips, the hiking organizations have also created and marked long-distance hiking trails that are divided into several daily stages. A special category of these routes are pilgrimage routes.
The motivation to hike is subject to considerable fluctuations, both among different age groups and generations, as well as in terms of the type of hiking and the trend over time. While it was still a natural professional necessity with the journeyman trade, combined with experience, adventure and personal maturation, the generation of the youth movement and the wandering bird celebrated hiking in songs and undertakings as emancipation from the encrusted adult world, as an escape from the desolate cities’ romantic discovery of nature and as an indispensable part of their special youth culture.
A study commissioned by the fitness magazine Fit for Fun from the Cologne Institute for Prevention and Aftercare (IPN) came to the conclusion that the energy expenditure when hiking is comparable to that when jogging. For example, the test subjects consumed as much food energy during a 2-hour hike in the lowlands as when jogging for 75 minutes. The gentle way is also said to be advantageous because the automatic pace adjustment rarely causes physical overstrain.
After a few hiking tours, it was now time to relax a little and even enjoy the pleasure of "daily" life: we wanted to participate in one of the well known rafting tours on Cetina river.
After crossing the wooden covered bridge in Kunitz, we had taken the path into the village center, then walked up the path to the Gleißberg, which first leads us along some wine fields.
Readers have written to us several times and asked for information about the most famous of the Turkish hiking trails, the Lycian Trail.
The sun was shining from the sky, despite the sub-zero temperatures, and once again we were after a hike, so we quickly packed our backpacks, warm tea and some provisions and set off for the Böselstein circular trail above Bad Bibra.
Once again it was time. Our dear friend and hiking guide Ömer had invited us to another excursion through the coastal Taurus Mountains near Manavgat above the Oymarpinar dam.
In our article about the porcelain centre of Kahla, we had already mentioned the many hiking trails and cycle paths that connect different destinations in beautiful surroundings, so we had chosen the way up to the Leuchtenburg with a visit to the local museum as our destination of that day.
After our tour to the Ottoman bridge Ura e Mesit, we had continued along the river for a few kilometers and had quickly reached a valley between the foothills of the Albanian Alps, which in recent years have increasingly established themselves as an attraction for mountain hikers.
The sun was shining due to the cloudless sky and the bitter cold, and in some places there were still wafts of fog drifting in the light wind on the Finne in Burgenland county, so dress warmly and get out there.
During our stay at Camping Vrachos in Kastraki at Meteora monasteries we also had the idea of a first exploration to the Pindos mountain range in Ioannina, especially to "explore" the famous Vikos Gorge.
During our stay in Lohmen we had already undertaken a few hikes in the area, now we wanted to go to the megalithic tomb and the mound of Groß Upahl, also in the hope of finding more well-kept or more easily recognizable megalithic tombs here.
We had heard several times about the GR 2013 long-distance hiking trail, a 365 km long hiking trail that took us through the landscape of Provence to the metropolitan region of the southern French port city of Marseille.
In the mid-1990s, bulldozers were levelling the area for the construction of the Lohmen rehabilitation clinic when a Bronze Age settlement was discovered.
Once we were gripped by the fever of collecting stamps to receive the Harz hiking badge, this was simultaneously linked to research and subsequently visiting other highlights in the Harz.
A few years ago, we had already searched for a path through the Wadden Sea to visit the Minsener Oog bird sanctuary. At the time we were with some friends from the south of Germany who wanted to get to know the mudflats for the first time and thus the healthy effect of the mud and the fresh sea breeze (click here for the article from that time).
Today we took the bus to the Vieux Port in Marseille for the first time, which turned out to be the best option as the terminus of bus line 82 is just a few meters from our accommodation.
Why look into the distance, …. although you can also take an interesting hike through a gorge relatively close by.
It will soon be that time again, because then lovers of nature and especially friends of the lady's slipper will be drawn to the Tyrolean Lech Valley, because the Lech flows through the valley in the most beautiful turquoise nuances.
During our stay at Camping Legjenda in Shkoder “long” years ago, we took tours into the Cem Valley, which runs almost parallel to the border mountains between Albania and Montenegro.
We were guests in Velbert where the Sunday sunshine invited us to go outside for a “long” walk. It was also extensive because there was no immediate gradient that had to be mastered on the way there and back.
We had packed our backpacks with some provisions and something to drink quite early in the morning, because today we were going to the small mountain village of Garnbach near Wiehe, a distance of around 14 kilometres plus the return journey.