Steen, who is assessor in the Board of ERA, visited the island Andros and the Leading Quality Trail – Best of Europe Andros Routes in Greece together with his girlfriend Vigga in week 43 2021.
We bring stories and pictures from their visit below:
Day 1, travel to Andros.
Day one was flight to Athens.
From Athens Airport we took a taxi to Rafina port, easy and quick. There we got a good Greek lunch and wine.
From Rafina it was ferry to Gavrio. A nice trip of nearly two hours.
Departure from Rafina 
Upper deck 
Gavrio
We picked up the rented car and drove to Chora, the main city of Andros. Here Olga, who works for Andros Routes, waited for us and handed over the keys to the house at the main square of Chora.
Our house 
Restaurant
After that we walked to a cosy restaurant with good food, which we ate outside in nice warm weather (in October).
Big thanks to Olga for her assistance and hospitality.
Day 2
On day 2 we walked around in the old town of the beautiful Chora.
Our house 
Andros Castle 
After that we drove to the restaurant Balcony Aigajou at Ano Aprovatou.
From there we walked southwards along Andros Route no 9 to meet a group of volunteers, who walked the opposite way to maintain the trail. The volunteers were from Greece, Italy, UK, Netherlands and Singapore. They did an amazing job.
We followed the group back to the restaurant, where they were served meals as recognition of their assistance.
The Dutch volunteer 
Our walk was in total 9km in 4 hours and 500 height meters.
Day 3
We walked the rest of route no 9. In total of 9 km. The weather was a bit colder 17° and quite windy.
View to the west 
Good information 
Inside an old barn 
We also passed a small chapel 
Chora 
A tree sculpture 
Back in Chora. Well deserved
The evening meal, which was delicious lamb, was at restaurant Endochora
Day 4
We decided to make a roundtour from our house in Chora. That resulted in 10,4 km with more than 1.000 heightmeters north and west of Chora along Andros Routes no 8a, 8 and 2. See the route here.
Day 5
We decided to make a normal tourist day by car.
Day 6
We were invited to visit the owners of our house at their farm. That resulted in a cosy afternoon with good local food and wine and nice talks. We walked in total of 7 km back and forth along Andros Route no 17.
Day 7
Today was the last whole day at Andros. So we decided for a 8 km walk along Andros Route no 1. And as usual we ended up at our main bar for late lunch.
Late lunch 
Vigga enjoys the last sun with a good book 😍
Day 8
Day 8 was travelling day. But before that we visited Olga at her home and wished her many big thanks for her assistance 🙂
The last view of Chora 
The harbour of Gavrio 
Here comes our ferry
References
Routes and trails: androsroutes.gr
Navigation: waymarkedtrails.org and outdooractive.com
Flights to Athens: booking.com
Ferry from mainland to Andros: directferries.co.uk
Car rental at Andros: Google Maps
Accomodation: airbnb.com
Restaurants, supermarkets, shops: Google and Google Maps
And least but not last: many big thanks to Olga from Andros Routes for hospitality and assistance 🙂