Iron curtain trail

The border between the GDR and Germany, part of the tourist-recreational belt "Iron Curtain"

The Trans-European bicycle path “Iron Curtain” ( Ger. Der Europa-Radweg “Eiserner Vorhang” , English “Iron Curtain Trail” (ICT) ) has a length of about 7,000 kilometers and stretches from the Barents Sea in the north to the Black Sea in the south.

Content

History

Here, during the Cold War between East and West, and more specifically between the Warsaw Pact countries and NATO , the border of military units passed. A European Parliament member, Michael Kramer, in 2005 proposed the idea of organizing blocks of long-distance cycling tourist routes along the border, so that new generations would not forget about the historical past of their countries and Europe as a whole. The European Parliament reacted to the idea with approval and expressed a desire to provide financial and other assistance to the project.

A little earlier (2002), the European Parliament decided to promote the formation of the so-called “Green Belt” military units on this former border, that is, the transformation of border areas into a zone of protected parks and protected natural territories , which can enhance the tourist attractiveness of the Iron Curtain territory .

Stages

The Iron Curtain bicycle trans-European path is officially divided into three parts:

North . It includes the territories of Norway and Finland bordering on Russia , further south along the Baltic coast of Estonia , Latvia , Lithuania , the Kaliningrad Oblast of Russia and Poland to Germany .
German . From the Baltic Sea coast to the south along the former border of the GDR and the Federal Republic of Germany.
South . Along the Czech border with Germany and Austria , Slovakia with Austria, Hungary with Austria, Slovenia , Croatia and Serbia , Romania with Serbia, Bulgaria with Serbia, Macedonia , Greece and Turkey .

Marking

The official marking of the bicycle route is a blue square, in which 12 five-pointed yellow stars are placed in a circle (symbols of the European Union). Inside the star field there are three letters of the Latin alphabet: “ICT” (Iron Curtain Trail) and the same three words are placed on the bottom side of the square. The route is marked along the whole "Iron Curtain".

Literature

ICT Guide Book with Bicycle Route Map (eng.)
ICT guide book with cycle route map (German)

Links

Official ICT Page (German)
Michael Kramer Home Page (him)