Iron Curtain Bike Trail Flickr Rich Gibson

For the bike ride – or hike – of a lifetime, it’s the 10,000 kilometer Iron Curtain Trail that takes you through 20 countries, from the Barents Sea to the Black Sea.  The trail is a post-Cold War marvel — areas that once were a “no man’s land” — that coincides and diverges from the Green Belt, part of Europe’s rewilding efforts that preserve open space for the public and help protect the biodiversity of plants, animals and birds.

Come back for the story of  the Iron Curtain Trail and Michael Cramer, the man behind the Trail – before you set out on your own adventure on Eastern Europe’s longest bicycle trail.