Bielefeld

I continued the punishing succession of 70km rides again on Sunday, travelling from Muenster to Bielefeld. Somewhat surprisingly my knees seem to be standing up to it quite well - I'm hardly getting any pain, probably because I'm mostly cycling in a low gear. Knees can easily become stressed on a recumbent, because you can brace yourself against the backrest, putting a lot of pressure on the pedals, but also the knees. (Sadly, my back tyre wasn't as tough as my knees, and I got not one, but two punctures, so on Monday I went to a shop with a good range of bikes, and got a more puncture resistant tyre!) I had made a special effort to include Bielefeld in my journey, because they are the second city in Germany to become an official transition community, and I had met Gerd Wessling, the main organiser of the transition initiative there, at a meeting in Brussels over three weeks ago. Silke Berger from the local BUND (Friends of the Earth) group was an enormous help, organising a meeting and a place to stay with Ursula Gindele-Berendonk and her husband (who had to come out an find me when I got lost late at night trying to find my way back after the meeting.) The meeting, at the Umwelt Zentrum (environment centre), was attended by representatives of both the local papers. I described my journey and reasons for doing it, so I hope the people of Bielefeld wake up to the importance of the Copenhagen talks.