and/or

Promotion of tour-cycling and cycle-travelling in the Brema and Gdansk region:
- Together with possible local partners the RwM could participate as a consultant in planning of signing for everyday cycling and bike truism as well in Brema as in its environs.
- The training of prospective leaders of cycling tours could be prepared with a partner. Part of this job is also working out a handbook for a leader of cycling tours which has to be translated into English or German.

General German Bicycle Club Association of Federal Land Bremen
(Allgemeiner Deutscher Fahrrad-Club Landesverband Bremen e.V.)

Bahnhofsplatz 14a 28195 Bremen Phone: +49 421 701179 Fax: +49 421 701159 E-Mail: info@adfc-bremen.de www.adfc-bremen.de Contact: Wolfgang Reiche (wolfgang.reiche@adfc-bremen.de)

Activities:
Promotion of cycling in everyday life and leisure time / holidays, institutional and individual consultation, sale of maps and literature on bicycle touring, supply of bicycle tours, courses, etc.

Cooperation possibilities:
Education programs (basic training, further training, and seminars)
Business extension (extension of own work to partners in Poland)
Consultation of colleagues in the same field
Participation in events in both countries
Building of networks
Promotion of tourism

Grupa Rowerowa Pojedz ze Mna (Bicycle Team Ride with Me)

http://rwm.netglob.com.pl

Activity:
Organising cycling tours

Achievements:
over 30 cycling tours

Education:
training and seminar

Business extension:
extending own work to partners in Germany, Consultation of colleagues in the same field, Participation in events in both countries, Building of network, Promotion of truism.

Joanna Wegnerowska ("Asia", RwM)
Michal Mizera ("Mike", RwM)
Wolfgang Reiche (ADFC LV Bremen)

Protocol of the meeting:

Both tandem-partners presented their respective organisation, informed each other about its activities, and then discussed the possibilities of future cooperation.

While the ADFC Bremen exists for more than 25 years and has developed and realized activities in the fields traffic policy, bicycle tourism, traffic pedagogy, traffic planning, bike events, bicycle tours etc., the small Polish group Ride with Me (RwM) is still in its infancy. It was founded in 2002. Since then the new organisation has mainly - and successfully - dealt with the preparation and realization of bike tours, and contrary to its Bremen partner it does not practice specific lobbying to improve the conditions for cyclists. That's why the cooperation will be concentrated primarily in the sector bike tourism. The tandem-partners will primarily inform each other about bicycle travelling and the supply of bike tours in the regions of Gdansk and Bremen. They already agreed upon a concrete project: The first organised bike tour for a group of cyclists from Bremen shall be planned after the summer meeting of the NGO-Forum and carried through in summer 2007. A second result of the Bremen meeting is this: The Gdansk organisation RwM picked up the idea to set up a first and simple list of biker-friendly accommodation places in Gdansk and its surroundings and distribute it by Internet or through tandem-partner ADFC.

In the course of the Bremen meeting Wolfgang Reiche showed the Polish bicycle friends the Bremen byke station with "radort Bremen" and the ADFC office as well to make clear to them to which advantageous facilities continual commitment can lead.

a) possibilities of the journey there and the return trip for 20 people with bicycles by trains of the Polish Railways (PKP)

 

b) finding out of two main places of accommodation for the group in Sopot and near Wladislawowo/ Hel peninsula

 

c) organisation of guided sightseeing tours in Gdansk and Sopot

 

d) finding out about the passage from Sopot to Hel by ship

 

e) first common planning of possible destinations of excursions and places of trip stages in the surroundings of Gdansk

 

f) searching for and purchase of appropriate maps

 

g) finding out of suitable roads and routes

In the course of a short tour through the city another cyclist from the group RwM joined us. Then first we took a suburb train to Wejherowo and after this we went by bike towards the Baltic Sea coast. It was a tour of 60 kilometres in the course of which the three Polish cyclists showed me several interesting places and observation platforms and possible routes for the group as well.

Besides we agreed that I shall make a list of favoured places and preferred activities, fix the date of the visit in 2007 and add supplementary basic pieces of information. After that Asia and Mike will compose a respective plan of bike trips and sightseeing tours and find out the routes which are most fitting

In the course of the return journey to Germany I followed large parts of the planned and mostly already marked EuroVeloRoute 10 (Baltic Sea Cycle Route). In the Baltic Sea region it passes mostly through forests and small villages, leads again and again to marvellous beach sectors and connects interesting places and almost all lighthouses of that region. However, at present one can’t recommend this route without reservation because of the unsatisfactory condition of its surface.

At present also the creation of an own list of accommodation places for cyclists in the Polish Baltic Sea still turns out difficult. It is true that in principle it is possible and quite easy to find a place to stay along the Polish coast of the Baltic Sea before or after the main season. Then also cycling tourists are heartily welcome. But our Gdansk partners did not get interested reactions when they asked the hoteliers whether the own house could be named cyclist-friendly and, should the occasion arrive, could offer a contingent of rooms particularly for bikers.

Wolfgang Reiche