We woke early for breakfast at 8pm, and then joined a tour of the campus. After the tour some people helped in the garden whilst others swam in the pool, or relaxed, before we met the community for an information exchange. After lunch, we cycled into town, just 2 km, to the local refugee project, Der Winkel, info cafe, a project also connected to the ZEGG. There we cooked with some people from the project, a traditional African feast, and listened to some of the stories from two brothers now living in Bal Belzig, who are fighting for asylum in…

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Fuer Fluechtlinge, wie diejenigen, die wir in Bad Belzig getroffen haben, ist die Grenze zwischen Stadt und Land eine, die fuer sie noch viel mehr von Bedeutung ist, als fuer Menschen mit nicht-eingeschraenkter Bewegungsfreiheit – fuer welche ja die Stadt-Land-Unterschiede auch sichtbar, aber nicht unbedingt lebensentscheidend sein koennen. Denn wer als Asysuchender_r nach deutschem Recht innerhalb der “Kreisgrenzen” einer kreisfreien Stadt (z.B. Berlin) gefangen ist, hat dort andere Moeglichkeiten und findet weitreichendere Strukturen, als innerhalb der Kreisgrenzen duenn besiedelter laendlicher Gegenden.

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A coal-fired power station, a Hitler youth camp and a Stazi centre for international espionage. None of these things could be further from the Zegg – a Centre for Experimental Culture Design based in Bad Belzig in East Germany. It’s difficult to believe in the site’s dark history as Nadia, our guide, walks us through the quiet organic gardens. The peaceful, leafy site has more the feel of a former university campus – with cottages dotted about next to car-free paths, the extravagant canteen and admittedly musty library and seminar centre – a smell typical, Nadia informs us, of former…

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Account 1) The cycling day to Bad Belzig was meant to be a straight forward ride along the R1 cycle path, follwing the potsdam lakes and forrest. For some of us it was, including a swim, but for the food crew, they had a broken axel only 10 kms into ther route, so they had to redistribute the food and replace the axel. People ahead then rearranged lunch, and we cycled an extra 8km to a new lunch spot. The afternoon was less stressful, and even more beautiful then the first, as we obviously were leaving the tourist track of…

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Account 1) After a few great days in Berlin to get the tour going, we leave at midday – 3 or 4 o’clck in this meditterannean climate. It’s an almost perfect day for pedalling: Sun, heat, but plenty of shade along the road to keep the atmosphere fresh. We follow the Mauerweg, a cycle path which traces the route of the infamous Berlin wall. It is the perfect context given this year’s bike tour theme: ‘Beyond Borders.’ We reach Potsdam without any great difficulty, and in the district of Babelsberg we reach the project we have come to visit. All…

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So we are finally on the road, after a busy few days in Berlin. Here are few things we got up to during our Kick off days in Berlin…more on them is to follow… On Thursday We met at  New Yorck to share remaining tasks such as making food teams / sourcing rocket stove workshop materials and anything else we might need for the next few days, then cycled to our sleeping place en mass, to cook food together and wait for the others to arrive! On Friday We took part in a workday at Funkhaus a reletively new project…

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