THINGS that HAPPEN in COPENHAGEN (part 1)

      BIKE CULTURE

The single most overhwhelmingly obvious thing about this city is that EVERYONE rides bicycles EVERYWHERE. The roads are so full of bikes that there can even be traffic jams in bike lanes. There is a sea of bikes on every street corner, you could easily injure yourself climbing over piles of bikes trying to get into the supermarket, and every quiet alley or nook is bound to have at least a few sad, lonely abandonned bikes in it…. It took me a while to get used to the cycling thing…. Often I look at the road and see more bikes than cars and still catch myself thinking ‘Wow, there must be some kind of bike race on or something!’….then I remember that I’m in Copenhagen, and it’s just normal. 

The thing is, the bike lane is between the parked cars lane and the footpath, and it looks a lot like a footpath, and the bikes on it go REALLY fast, which is not a good combination for people like me fresh from the land of Oz…. Not to mention that everything is happening on the wrong side of the road! However, I’ve developed a lot more awareness with this now, after a few near misses, and now I reckon I’m as savvy as any Copenhagener! Not only that, but I have a bike of my own now! Jorrit found me a sad abandoned bike, fixed it up, and now I’m riding around the city (and even out to the forest!) on my new set of wheels…. :-)
 

There are also special bikes called ‘Christiana bikes’ made in the Free Land of Christiana (another topic for another day) that have 3 wheels and a big box attached to the front of the bike, which conveniently carries up to 4 pre-school aged children, or your grandmother, or ALL your grocery shopping, or your building supplies for your home renovations, or...… ;-) Playgroup nannies use Christiana bikes to take the kids to the park etc, and many families use them as their main means of transportation…. What a nice way to travel!