The Copenhagen Report

With plenty of snow on the ground this week in Copenhagen, it's certainly worth giving a little shout-out to his fantastic Winter cycling in Copenhagen video (right below - it was made last year, but it's just as fresh as ever).We've mentioned before that we're big fans of Mikael Corville-Andersen's Copenhagen Cycle Chic website.

Since moving to Copenhagen, personally I've never been phased by a bit of snow when it comes to hopping on my bike and cycling around the city. And I'm far from the only one. You could call it a another aspect of Danish culture, I suppose.


Copenhagen January Cycling - Your Country from Copenhagenize on Vimeo.

Alternatively, just click on over to his Cycle Chic 'Cycling in Winter' Guide.

Here's a fantastic little Copenhagen video that landed in my inbox the other day. It pretty much sums up one of the best ways to use a Copenhagen Sunday on spring or summer day...as long as it's not raining. The beach on bicycle...in this case Amager Strand about a 15 minute bike ride from the center of Copenhagen ...what more could you want?


Ocean On Bicycles from runrobot on Vimeo.

If all 'adverts' were this beautiful (and all cities were this cycling-obsessed), well, the world would be a better place, there's no doubt about that. This one was made by Mikael Corvill-Andersen, who is also behind the masterful Copenhagen Cycle Chic site.

Should you find yourself entranced by the Copenhagen presented through the lens of this addictively compelling video (as I am...and I already live here!), let me tell you, aside from the risk you may suddenly be overcome by the urge to book a ticket here for a weekend or longer (do it...if you don't already live here), well, at the very least you may find yourself spending an extended period of time trolling through the archives of Mikael's blog, which really deserves all the praise it has already garnered and much more. You've been warned.


Copenhagen. Life. Cycle. by Biomega from Copenhagenize on Vimeo.

They can't all be hells angels or rockers...this group parked their high-octane bikes...well, choppers, to be precise (yes, pictured) then proceeded to engage in a ferocious round of...Easter Monday window shopping in Nørrebro.

Trying to conjure up an image of just how it is to live in Copenhagen for someone who has never been here is never an easy task. It's the nuances that can be so tricky. Case in point: beautiful blond postwomen on bicycles? An outsider could be forgiven for visualising something akin to what could be described as 'precisely the polar opposite of Planet of the Apes' (with more bikes). I not sure if this would be an entirely accurate image, although on a good number of sunny summer days I would probably be inclined to agree it could be.

Anyway, if you feel you could be characterised as something of a bicycle fetishist, or, more modestly, were simply curious to get a better handle on just what this Copenhagen bicycle culture is all about, gazing at a lousy phone camera picture of a couple of bicycling postwomen on this blog won't get you that far (though you'd be surprised at the effort capturing this little moment actually took). Rather, I suggest clicking straight over to ever-impressive Copenhagen Cycle Chic, run by a small group possessing an admirable dedication to the task, and feasting your eyes on some of the timeless pics there.

Enough said.

Not that long ago, anyone going for a little bicycle ride along the lakes ('Søerne') in Copenhagen, which stretch from Vesterbro, past Nørrebro and all the way over to Osterbro, was greeted by very unfriendly gates and 'no cycling' signs. It looked exactly like this:


...obviously, not everyone agreed with the message

It was one of the most nonsensical cycling restriction in Copenhagen. Not only is are the lakes a great place to cycle, but with two enormously wide paths, one running right alongside the water, the other set about a meter higher set in from the water, there is more than ample enough space for both bicycles and pedestrians. But at long last, the restrictions are being lifted and finally the path along the lakes looks as it should. There are still a couple of fences up towards Osterbro, which I assume will disappear soon (or are being left to 'slow' bicycle traffic).


no more barriers or bicycle restrictions!

An amusing thing about this (above) picture is it is precisely the sight of a campaign an adamant local has been running every morning for the past few months, putting up a banner over the (former) barrier proclaiming the path along the lakes for pedestrians, then sitting herself at a chair on a table and thereby partially blocking the small entrance in the barrier where bikes and people could go through. Apparently a protest of the coming changes to along bicycles. I used to cycle by her on my way to work every morning.

Actually, I was even once (annoyingly) stopped by a tricky police officer positioned to catch the many, many people (like me) who chose to be, ahem, civilly disobedient when going along the lakes with a bicycle...the fine never did arrive in the post.

Incidentally, a fair way to judge of how the summer is going in Copenhagen, that is, if there has really been a summer at all, is to take a stroll along the lakes ('Søerne'). A hot summer not only means algae-coated green-tinged lakes, but also results in the lakes emitting a lovely stench. And judging things by this measure, it hasn't been such a bad summer around here. Fortunately the ducks seem to like it no matter what.




the lovely green Copenhagen lakes...

As anybody who lives in Denmark, or has visited the country well knows, there are few places more bicycle friendly than Denmark. Not surprisingly, cycling is the primary means of transportation for a huge number of people in the country - particularly in Copenhagen.

But it's not just Copenhagen.

This past weekend I was out in the countryside, about 45 minutes north of Copenhagen - I'd brought along my bicycle on the train so I would have a means to get to where I was going once I reached the closest train station. I was amazed at what I found. Not only was there a sizable bicycle path taking me directly to my destination from the train station (this was not the surprising part), as I cycled towards my destination I couldn't believe my eyes when I came to a 'roundabout' in the middle of the cycle path, where the path intersected another. It was a 'roundabout' constructed entirely for bicycles!

by: Tim Anderson (timothyanderson2005@gmail.com)

According to research by the British Council, Copenhagen is home to the second fastest walkers in the world. That is, on average, people walk very quickly. Who would have guessed it?

Yet, somehow I find myself a bit skeptical of this claim. So I got to thinking, maybe, just maybe there is an explanation for these findings - one on 2 wheels.

See, what if the researchers - overzealous to cover a wide range of walking spaces around the city - without realising it managed set up there measurement equipment in such a way that, though managing to avoid clocking car traffic speeds, actually ended up clocking not only pedestrians walking, but also bicycle speeds as well? No way, you sayy! Weeeeell....

Maybe, just maybe, while setting up their measurement devices they got confused and thought many of the bike lanes were actually sidewalks. After all, unlike in most cities, there are bike lanes lining virtually every street in Copenhagen (and not only sidewalks). That would certainly jack up the speed statistics some, wouldn't it?

Could it have happened? Naaaaaw....well, maybe...


zooooom....