2012 – Page 2 – Ecotopia Biketour

Archive by category "2012" (Page 2)

Venezia: We have arrived!!!

taborda September 18, 2012 October 8, 2012

We have finally arrived to Venezia… Last Sunday, after around 3500 km(!) by bike through Catalunya, Southern France and Northern Italy and having visited more than 40 diferent projects and campaigns, we arrived in Venezia and joined other 300 people on an incredible Critical Mass into Venezia against the TAV and the Big Cruises in Venezia’s laguna. Inside Venezia city we ended up carrying our full-loaded bikes and trailers over 5 bridges (with stairs) and joining the small-boats action to delay the exit of 3 big cruises from Venezia.We topped of this incredible day with a huge concert and feast at…

Decrescendo in Riviera

taborda September 9, 2012 September 9, 2012

Sorry, this entry is only available in Italiano. For the sake of viewer convenience, the content is shown below in the alternative language. You may click the link to switch the active language. www.opzionezero.org www.mira2030.it

Cycling on…

agnessiob September 7, 2012 September 19, 2012

After 3 weeks of pedalling we left Ecotopia Biketour in Torino. We’re not quite sure why – the tour goes on for a few more weeks so we must have got our dates wrong! We arrived back to Manchester very cold and confused, but we were picked up straight away by the strength of our cycling community here. The Critical Mass the day after we got back was a good cure for any withdrawal symptoms from group cycling, with over 100 people on the road despite the rain (plus two soundsystems – one on a home made trailer and one…

Asti To Bologna

Ben September 7, 2012 September 19, 2012

From Asti we had an easy but dull ride on the flat. The roads were poorly maintained and full of long crack, sometimes wider than my tires. In the distance we could see the mountain and that were we were heading. Inevitably our final destination required us to scale a massive hill. For ages we climbed and climbed, it seemed to never end. I stopped to eat figs off a tree overhanging the road, and stopped again to admire the view. Eventually we were there, the Valli Unite organic argicultural co-operative. We stayed for the entire weekend as volunters for…

What have I learnt from the tour?

sam September 3, 2012 September 19, 2012

As my month of sunkissed, intense Ecotopia draws to a close, I’ve found myself wondering: have I changed as a person? For better, for worse? The more I wonder, the clearer the answer: yes, Sam, of course you’ve changed for the better, Now you have a deep, hot, glowing tan. A tan over the forearms, and even on the underside of the forearms. A tan on the back, and the deepest bronze cresting your shoulders. A sunkissed head, neck, ears, nose, forehead, chin and cheeks. Even my enormous heart now appears more golden. And also my entire legs, because I…

The biketour in food form

alice September 2, 2012 September 19, 2012

‘It fills my heart when people can just eat what they want to and there is still food left at the end’ – João Taborda 2012 Cycling up a hill towards Valli Unite this evening, just after my first ripe fig which I have been waiting for for months, I realised that it’s been a while since I wrote something and I thought that I would spend a little time collecting my biketour memories so far, using our encounters with a vast variety of foods of all shapes and sizes to help me. Apples – We woke up one morning…

The Squats of Coordinamento Asti Est

Ben September 2, 2012 May 13, 2013

30th August – As the tours cyclists congregated outside a bar by Asti train station, a couple of our hosts for the evening arrived to take us to a large squatted building where we would eat and sleep. The building once belonged to the department of health but, left empty, it now houses twelve previously homeless families of Moroccan immigrants. We ate our evening meal with members of the association which initiated the occupation and were told we’d be eating breakfast at another squat in the morning where we’d also learn more about the project. In the meantime we had…

first days cycling italy..

taborda September 2, 2012 September 19, 2012

And now for another day by day update from the past week. although we have just realised that; 1. today is our two month birthday of starting cycling!!! Time for a celebration I think. 2. we only have one week left!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! nooooooooooooooooooooooo saturday 25 august, after the the NO TAV camp general assembly, a big group of people tried to walk to the TAV construction site and were stopped by a police block which made us have to take a smaller path. We were heading to the Clarea protest site, where many tree houses and other resistance structures where some…