Self-organised refugee squat, smoothie bike and a huge collection of bike parts in Lyon

We arrived in the evening in Lyon at a squatted Villa in the Sans Souci quarter. There we were greeted by a few of the house’s residents, the majority of which come from Guinea. They have been living in the house for about 3 years. We set up our tents in the garden with the chickens and fell asleep to the noisy city sounds in the background. We woke up refreshed the next morning and had a circle (our word for a meeting) and discussed various topics, including alcohol consumption within the group, what we are doing in Lyon and…

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I’m cycling in the rain, just cyclin’ in the rain What a glorious feeling, I’m happy again…

Well despite record temperatures through the regions we were cycling in this year, wildfire risks and general drought, there were still a few days where the skies opened up and blessed us with litres of water over us and our bikes.. I guess after 6 weeks of no rain most of us were not so prepared for rainy days Luckily there was someone from Britain – island of rain and changable weather – to coach us about cycling in the rain. Maybe it’s helpful for other people, meanwhile we didn’t see rain since a few days again.. Cycling and rain…

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From Besançon to Lyon along the river Ain

The group left Besançon with one day delay due to heavy rains. The route planning team decided to take a more hilly but also more picturesque detour towards Lyon along the River Ain, passing through its steep rocky valleys with its enchanted mossy forests, passing many waterfalls and lakes on the way. Close to Thoirette we took a rest day on a grass field down by the river. Not many people pass by there, so we could have a circle (meeting), a few swims, time to relax, some bike fixing, a visit to the “cow piss” waterfall close by and…

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Spring Meeting 13–15 May 2022

Our Spring Meeting will happen from Friday, 13 May until Sunday, 15 May in Leipzig, Germany. In this meeting we want to make some final decisions about the route, start preparing the transportation of our equipment to the starting point, establish the communication and registration of participants and create and spread promotion material. Anyone who is interested is welcome to join the meeting. The idea is to have discussions on Friday, Saturday and Sunday. It is possible to arrive on Thursday evening and leave on Monday morning. Sleeping places will be organized, it will probably be needed to bring a…

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Winter Meeting 2022

Hello everyone! Our date and time for the winter meeting is finally fixed, hurrah! Everyone is welcome to come to Greene, a little south of Hannover, in Germany from the 17th Feb, Thursday, to the 21st Feb, Monday. The meeting will be in the Funkenhaus, a nice collective which often hosts seminars like this. The programm is not fixed yet, but some parts will be about which direction to go this Summer, feedback from last year, gender topics around the tour, free time to wonder around, etc. Your welcome anyway, but you are also welcome to send us a mail…

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Rolling through Czech countryside

On our first cycling day we left Prague to go Northwest to a farm with alternative people called Mlyn, where we camped on a field full of edible plants equipped with a teepee! We finished our rocket stove with the material help from the place. We also went to a lake under the local castle ruin that turned out to be just a field of reed so instead of swimming we had a discussion about how to facilitate a biketour circle. On the second evening a person from the house took us to a village for a taste of local…

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Ecotopia 2021 – Beginning in Praha

Hello Ecotopians! After a year of break, the tour is back on the go again! We began a few days ago in Praha, dwelling at K11 guesthouse which is a social center that hosts alternative bands and communities along the year. The first day we visited “Bike Kitchen Praha” where we fixed and prepared our bikes for the tour, met the organizers who explained about the project and had some delicious local lemonade. On our way back we dumpster dived in the local market getting food for dinner. Today we had our first circle and meeting of the group, to…

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EBT 2021 Organisation on the Way

Yes, we have started planning the 2021 Ecotopia Biketour. At this moment we can’t say how vagabond-friendly this summer will be but let’s hope we can push the pedals together again! At this stage we are planning a winter meeting in March in norther Italy or Switzerland and we want everybody who is eager to organise it to be able to join it either physically or virtually. Since the current pandemic situation is going against the possibility to meet easily all together in one place we are considering also a hybrid kind of a meeting where people could meet locally…

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