we had a successful winter meeting! if you want to read more about the discussions, we wrote a blog post here
The Ecotopia Biketour is having our winter meeting! On saurday 17th and sunday 18th of December we’ll be meeting up in Berlin to organise the 2017 Biketour. There will also be an info-event at Regenbogenfabrik on wednesday the 21st, 18h, where you can get an idea about what the Biketour actually is.
As it is yet to be decided where Ecotopia Biketour 2017 is going to take place, we’ll discuss and make necessary decisions about the general route according to interesting projects and local organizers during these two days. We will work together to create flyers and posters to advertise the tour and discuss about our values and how to implement them. Everyone is encouraged to participate in the discussions without any pressure to take on a lot of tasks.
The location of the meeting is Anton-Schmaus-Haus in Berlin. (Gutschmidtstraße 37, Neukölln, 12359 Berlin) It is also possible to sleep there if you need to (bring your own sleeping bag and mat!) and we will be cooking together during the weekend. We have the possibility to refund your travel costs for coming to the meeting. The plan is to have meetings Saturday and Sunday between 11:00 and 19:00, starting with an introduction to the biketour for newer people. We don’t have access to the meeting and sleeping place until 23:00 on Friday 16th, you are welcome to arrive at 23:00 at Anton-Schmaus-Haus, or if you arrive in Berlin earlier you can call the number below – we’ll be hanging out somewhere else in the city for the evening. We will all stay at Anton-schmaus-haus together until the morning of Monday 19th, and we plan to informally continue the meeting and preparations afterwards in the paperfactory in Spechthausen, 1 hour from Berlin. Everybody is welcome to stay longer with us. If you have trouble finding us, you can call us on +49 1578 4844873.
We want to get as many people involved in the process, from people who have participated in the Biketour many times to those who have never been on it – everyone is welcome! So please let us know if you are coming – either by adding yourself to the form here or emailing us – 2017 at ecotopiabiketour dot net (also for any questions you might have). If you can’t make it to the meeting, but are interested in being involved in the preparation process or want to be a local organiser for a part of the tour (a knowledge of the region is necessary), please write us an email!
In 2016 we cycled from Poland to Estonia, passing through Belarus, Lithuania and Latvia. We stayed at activist squatted gardens in Warsaw, visited the Bialoweza forest, met with several ecological, cultural and cycling communities in Brest and Minsk, learnt about edible herbs at an eco-community in Belarus, participated in a queer summer festival (SapfoFest), ate the best vegan pizza made by a Kaunas collective, cycled across sand dunes on the Curonian Spit, visited a freak-bike workshop in Liepaja, stayed at a Latvian cultural centre and camped in beautiful nature next to rivers or on the beach.
How to get to Anton-Schmaus Haus
In Berlin there are two types of metros, the S-Bahn and the U-Bahn. The S-Bahn is depicted by a white S in a green circle, the U-Bahn has a white U in a blue square. To get to Britz Süd, you need a ticket for the zones AB. All tickets are valid on all forms of transportation. The single ticket is called Einzelfahrschein and is valid for 2 hours. You can have a look at the metro map here, but you will also find it on every metro and on every station. The central station is called Hauptbahnhof (a bit north-west of the centre of the map), the central bus station is at Messe Nord/ICC in the west of the circle line. If you arrive by train or IC Bus, it might be worth checking if your train stops at Südkreuz in the south of the circle line, as it will be much closer to Britz Süd. To plan your connections you can use this website: http://www.bvg.de/en/
Anton-Schmaus-Haus is only about 300 metres from the Britz Süd metro station, but it can be a bit tricky to find, so note down well how to get there. Exit the station to the South, and you will be standing on a big road (Gutschmidtstrasse) looking towards a big shop called Kaufland. Turn right and walk along the main road until on the forest starts, and turn left on a foot-path into the forest. You follow that path straight for 100 metres and you will find a red building on the right. The building is large and square with a fence running around it.
Hope to see you there!
The Ecotopia Biketour Collective
(www.ecotopiabiketour.net)