Ecotopia Biketour is a self-organized environmental and social activist bicycle tour that has been cycling through different parts of Europe each summer since 1990. On our way we visit social and environmental projects and groups, to learn about their struggles and visions, to exchange knowledge, to create connections and to support them by participating in actions or doing some physical work. Read more about what the Ecotopia Biketour is.
Ecotopia Biketour 2017 will go through Germany, France and may be to Switzerland and eastern Spain. A more specific route will be announced on the website as soon as it is decided. If you have some recommendations for projects, groups and events for us to visit on the way or would like to help preparing the tour, write to 2017@ecotopiabiketour.net. Read more about Ecotopia Biketour 2017.
Biketour concepts
Participation guidelines
Self-Organisation
>how it's prepared
>consensus
>circles
Online Tools
On the road
Food
> veganism
> rocket stove
> dumpster-diving
Activities
> skill-sharing
Latest blog posts
Biketour at Bossgården
After Jönköping, the Biketour stayed at Bossgården, a small farm on the country-side between Falköping and Tidaholm. One of the farm buildings was built in 1818 and still has a traditional reed roof, making the farm an official cultural heritage site. On the farm lives a small family with children, and some volunteers are around as well. There is a big vegetable garden that is being operated as a CSA (community-supported agriculture, where people pay a fixed rate to the farmer but get a varying amount of food depending how much grows). We stayed for two nights and helped with…
The magic waterfall of Trollhättan
Already before the tour I noticed a town called “Trollhättan” on the map. When I looked it up on Wikipedia to find out about what its name meant (it means Troll’s hat), I read the absurd story of the Trollhättan Falls. The city’s most iconic landmark and probably biggest tourist attraction are the Trollhättan Falls, a huge waterfall in the middle of the city where the river Göta, which goes from Sweden’s biggest and Europe’s third-biggest lake Vänern to Göteborg, falls 32 metres. Unfortunately, a big hydro-electric power station was built next to the waterfall in the 19th century, with…
Jönköping – hot showers, chocolate cake, and other bike tourers
The road into Jönköping was one giant downhill, and at the bottom we arrived at the kulturhuset (http://kulturhusetjonkoping.se/). We were warmly welcomed with hot coffee (and hot showers!) and shown to our sleeping place for the next three nights, a studio room with wall mirrors. And the whole building was quite huge! When we were shown the sleeping room, there were two other bike tourers already in there! It turned out they were touring together long distance and were passing through Jönköping on their way to Uddebo, where we had just come from. Interestingly, they had reclining style bikes, which…
Uddebo Village – alternative living in the countryside
The first stop after Göteborg was the small village of Uddebo (http://uddebo.se/), home to around 300 people. A few years ago this small village was given new life when people from the city seeking alternative ways of living moved there, buying previously empty houses, fixing them up, and giving them new life. Since then, the village has grouped together more to start work on restoring a village building called the yellow house. Currently used as a freeshop and cafe, once restored the building will have many more potential uses. The community has also built a sauna next to the…