Well Heeled, Well Wheeled

Serious heels on an autumn's day.


Serious wheels.

Wonderful Fairytale Town

Wonderful Copenhagen from Colville Andersen on Vimeo.
Don't know why it didn't occur to me before to use this song. It's corny, it's kitsch - it's from a musical for god's sake - but it works well with the footage. The Wonderful, Wonderful Copenhagen song from the 1952 Danny Kaye musical about Hans Christian Andersen. The story is completely Hollywoodized and doesn't come close to drawing a true portrait of the writer. Believe me, I know. I produced this website for Danish Broadcasting for the bicentenary of Andersen's birth in 2005. Actually, if you're coming to Copenhagen and like history, I'm quite proud of The Time Machine on the aforementioned website. You follow in Andersen's footsteps in a flash-based 'game'.

The Hollywood film, it is said, is the single reason that generations of Americans still pronounce the English name for Copenhagen wrong. It's not Copen-HAH-gen. It's Copen-HAY-gen. Blame the songwriter/scriptwriter on that film.:-)


Meanwhile, back in fairytale land, splendid creatures roll about the streets each and every day, as Lars' photo attests [and every other photo on this blog]. You can send the dinky Little Mermaid to China, for all I care. I prefer the Cycling Girls of Copenhagen as a symbol for this city.

Spectactular and Spectactors plus Guest Photos

The Tour of Denmark bicycle race wrapped up in our neighbourhood last week. We blogged about it over at Copenhagenize.com. All the streets were closed off but the bike lanes remained open during the day as the riders did 10 laps through the neighbourhood before crossing the finish line.

Throughout the race cyclists pedalled past. Some stopped when the racers flew by, but many didn't even raise an eyebrow. There were many people lining the streets in the sunshine and there were many bicyclists to watch. It was truly style over speed all day long.

GUEST PHOTOS FROM BASQUE COUNTRY

One of our regular readers, Humberto from Lisbon, travelled up to Basque Country for a concert and he took a series of cycle chic photos from San Sebastian and Bilbao. We just had to add them today. Thanks, Humberto!

While we'd like to take out a patent on chic cycling in Copenhagen, it is worth remembering that according to the European Cyclists' Federation there are 100 million daily cyclists in Europe. Normal people on normal bikes doing normal things. As Humberto's photos attest.

BOSTONIAN HEELS

Thanks to our reader Marcie in Boston who sent us this cycle chic link from Boston.com.
The caption on the website shows that normal people in normal clothes is not yet run of the mill in American cities: "BPD Tactical Bicycle Unit members were somewhat amused by the foot gear Jessica Foster wore as she joined in the event and pedaled in from Brookline."

But Marcie does her bit to spread the good word:
"Since my daily cycling only requires only a leisurely 3 km to the T in Boston, I never considered putting on special clothes or even casual attire to make my commute. I am going from point A to point B and will barely break a sweat, why do I need to forgo my business suit? When I found your blog, not only have I found an excellent advocate of like mind, but also someone who provides beautiful photos to remind me of my short sojourn in Copenhagen years ago."

Sunday Cruise

These cruisers are all the rage in Copenhagen, in the 15-25, female demographic group.