The day began like all the others with bright sunshine, which made it impossible to sleep past 8 am, as the tent would heat up considerably. Breakfast eased us into the day, especially the fresh coffee provided by our hosts. We were happy to welcome another cooperider from Copenhagen, who joined us the night before and accompanied us to Proschim. Before we could depart however, we had to look for one of our beloved Walkie Talkies, which had been displaced. These little gadgets were a big help in the communication between front and back in the first cooperide and continued to serve us well.

Having found it at last, we left Berge behind us to cover the 40 km to Berlin, where we would meet Time2Cycle and Vélorution, two other bike groups from the UK and France we were in contact with before. The ride went well with some forest paths offering welcome shade from the pressing sun. We stopped at a nice playground for lunch, which we used to gather our spirits.

A nice quote, carved in wood summed up what we thought: “It’s a perfect day for a perfect day!”. With this positive energy, we rode into Berlin, stopping for a selfie with Berlin’s mascot, the bear and to spread some factsheets about the crimes of oil companies on petrol stations along the way.

We were all happy to finally meet up with our bike comrades from Time to Cycle, Vélorution and other bike enthusiasts. To celebrate this meeting, we did a critical bike mass in Berlin from west to east, passing the Brandenburger Tor for some pictures. It was a joyous ride under the sun.

The first half of the next day was meant for rest, individual free time and more socializing. The second half we mobilized again for announced demonstrations at the doors of Vattenfall and in front of a showroom of VW. We were escorted by the police, having a whole lane to ourselves through the otherwise busy streets of Berlin. This felt comfortable and at the same time peculiarly unpleasant, as the high amount of police present was disproportionate to the lower amount of cyclists, which could give the impression of us being perceived as a big threat.

We were fed and housed by a number of collectives in Kreuzberg, a part of town with a long history of squats. We are very thankful for all that support and the warm welcome into their homes!