Meant to happen 2018

It’s amazing how some things are just meant to happen. Renate and I have for years thought about settling down a bit, maybe get a house, slow down our travels and make our own business. The problem has always been – where?

When we went for a vacation to Sweden this summer we got a message on Facebook from our friend Reiny Hoekstra. Originally from The Netherlands but like us she has been living on Karpathos for many years. She asked us if we were interested in taking over her company, Art and Walk. We’ve both known this company for years and we know very well how nice her home is and how she has put her soul into the company. I felt immediately that this was it. I was super thrilled! As a couple, and nowadays also business partners, you need one that gets a bit carried away and one that holds the feet to the ground. In this case I was flying and Renate held me down.

That was just what we needed. We had to get into all the details of the company. The revenue, the contracts, the house, the prices, meet the bookkeeper, availability to have a dog, working hours, collaboration with local and foreign companies, everything you can think of. Also, we needed to walk the walks and do the workshops to see if this was really what we wanted. And it was!

This is the right place and the right time for us. Time to put down the suitcases, make room for all the souvenirs we’ve gathered through the years and enjoy a home. Art and Walk gives us all this and it’s so exciting to be able to share all our plans with all of you. The schedule for 2019 is preliminary but we try to keep it quite similar to the schedule of the company from the previous years but we have plans to make a history walk in Pigadia and expand our workshops. We will see how this will plan out. We will leave the Maldives where we are currently working as dive instructors and move back to Karpathos in January. This gives us enough time to work on the company and settle down on our beloved island which we can now call our real home.

The Scandinavian market

A lot of information will come during the next weeks and months but the biggest news is probably the fact that we have started a collaboration with Apollo. Our way into the Scandinavian market is now wide open and this gives us huge benefits in the future. We are very happy about this and we will of course do everything in our power to make everyone as happy as they can be.

Look out for more news in the next couple of weeks and also warm welcome to the new homepage of Art and Walk Karpathos!

Cheers, Thom