A day in the city of cycles

August 7, 2012

We slept well and didn’t wake up till almost morning which was surprising considering our jet lag. Going down to breakfast I solved the mystery of the small soccer boys. They were teams from Nigeria here for a tournament . One of the teams had reached the semi finals and they are pleased with that. Today after 8 days they fly back to Nigeria it will certainly be an experience they will remember all their lives.

Ken and I have another night here to help get rid of the dreaded jet lag. After breakfast we set off with our unloaded bikes into this city of cycles to find the Little Mermaid from where our tour starts. It was a lovely route we found along the canals. On this sunny cool morning the cycling was effortless. We knew when we were reaching the Little Mermaid as it had an honour guard of tour buses. There we met a lovely couple, Maria and Steve from Swindon who kindly took the official photo of the start of our tour.

The meander back to the hotel reinforced how much Copenhagen has embraced the bicycle. They seem to be the most common form of everyday transport and certainly outnumber cars on the road. Very few people are wearing helmets and we saw no one dressed in cycle gear. Men rode along in their business suits, there were fashionably dressed women and everyone was dressed in the way you would expect pedestrians to be. Women’s bicycles were step through ones like mine and the men also tended to ride upright bikes and a fair number of them had fixed or hub gears rather than chain gears. As well as that there were numbers of fascinating specialist bikes. Most of these were adapted for carrying loads of either people or goods. We have attempted to capture some of the bikes on film but usually by the time the camera is out they have sped past. Along the way you realized how well cyclists are catered for when you even come across pumps on the side of the road. Ken and I are getting more used to riding in this heavy cycle traffic. What you have to do is imagine that you and all the other vehicles are cars and ride in the appropriate way listening carefully all the time for the bell of an approaching speedster. It still is rather scary at times.

Jens had worked at the same hospital in Auckland as Ken about 16 years ago and very kindly invited us to their place for dinner this evening. He picked us up from the hotel at 4pm and what a wonderful evening we have had. They live about 15km out of Copenhagen in a beautiful place with a section that goes down to a lake. The whole place is everything you imagine good Scandinavian design to be. More importantly than that however is that they are both such warm and interesting people, we so enjoyed ourselves and had a delicious meal.

Matthew has lunch at Macdonalds while we shelter from a rain shower

The men on the top of the tower are blowing traditional lure horns

This mother has her children in the front compartment

Today's ride: 12 km (7 miles)
Total: 29 km (18 miles)

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