I am more a night owl than a morning person and love to have a slow start in the morning with a cup of coffee. For some years now, I like to go running in the morning and recently changed from listening to electronic dance music to podcasts. I like cooking and trying out new recipes; especially since we turned vegan-at-home.

Marcel and I started hiking on Madeira and because I grew up in the lowlands and so I am not a huge fan of uphill hiking, I liked the walks along the levadas. For our first Great Walk in New Zealand, I bought trekking poles (“Tom & Jerry”) and appropriate boots (my “Reinholds”, named after Reinhold Messner), which made hiking uphill much easier.

I have almost no sense of direction, so the invention of the smartphone with navigation maps was such a lifesaver for me. I have no idea how Marcel does it – it seems he doesn’t even pay attention but (almost) always finds the right way. Given that I am the techie anyway, I’ll manage though. 😉

I’m a clear morning person and so it’s my job to get Christiane out of bed in the morning. Usually it works quite well after the second cup of coffee.
I love being outside in nature. If possible, I go running every other day. In summer, when they days are longer, and in the winter I go running with my headlamp. I try to avoid roads with traffic. I like tracks that are going uphill and downhill, and prefer running across country and through the forest.
My parents infected me with the “hiking virus” very early on and with them I climbed the Italian Alps even as a young boy. So I think it’s great that Christiane is slowly getting a taste of it, too.
My absolute passion is travelling. I can spend hours researching flights, travel routes and possible activities in the respective regions. Therefore, such a long journey is heaven for me 🙂