Lux

The Nordic summer has unique qualities that are difficult to explain. After long, dark winters, the world opens up and the light embraces you. You are giddy. The light is the defining factor. Light illumination is measured in units called Lux.

On a moonless, overcast night you get about 0.0001 lux. The lighting in an average family living room is about 50 lux. The Nordic winter - overcast, snow, rain and with a sunset, in Copenhagen anyway, at around 15:30 in mid-December - is not generous in it's distribution of lux. Rarely does it rise above about 400 lux.

On a sunny, summer's day, on the other hand, your body and mind is splashed with upwards of 100,000 lux. What a shock in the first sunny days of spring. It triggers that feeling of a rush and it increases your energy levels and even your sexual desire. It's quite a difference between winter and summer. I love the Copenhagen summer, needless to say.


Copenhageners at a stop light near the city hall square, on the bike lane.

What Things Look Like in The Summer in Copenhagen

It's summer. It's beach weather. It's sticky hot all day and all night. In Copenhagen we're spoiled for beaches and, like anywhere else, we flock to them whenever we can.

What checking a text message at a red light heading home from the beach looks like in The Copenhagen Summer.

What a red light looks like in in The Copenhagen Summer.

What waiting for the elevator at the Metro at the beach looks like in The Copenhagen Summer.

What heading home from the beach looks like in The Copenhagen Summer.

What parking at the beach looks like in The Copenhagen Summer. [At this beach there are 5000 bike rack spaces - and about 10,000 bikes]

What beach parking overflow looks like in The Copenhagen Summer.

Thor's Day and a Tag

It's Thor's Day, which is Thursday in English and that means absolutely nothing at all. Above is a Copenhagner doing a classic 'around the rack' [as opposed to around the block] looking for parking on Amager Square in the heart of the city. The City of Copenhagen is starting to make rackless bike parking areas, since real bikes have kickstands anyway.

Afternoon rush hour with cyclists either turning or accelerating off the light.

Canadians and Aussies will know the scientist and environmentalist David Suzuki, above. We hosted him and a crew from the CBC last week. He's shooting a doc on sustainability in Europe with his daughter Sarika, also above. It was lovely. Copenhagen's bike culture was the subject, of course, and we rode around for two days talking about it. Read more over at Copenhagenize.

TAG!
So it appears that we've been Tagged - some sort of viral buddy thing for bicycle bloggers. As urban blog legend will have it, some blogger called The Fat Cyclist started it and Erik at K-WALL

tagged us. Uh... thanks. I think. But I'll play along. It means we have to answer some fun questions so here goes:If you could have any one — and only one — bike in the world, what would it be?
No idea. It's not about the bike. Maybe a black one. All shiny like.

Do you already have that coveted dream bike? If so, is it everything you hoped it would be? If not, are you working toward getting it? If you’re not working toward getting it, why not?
No idea. I don't covet bikes. I don't covet busses or other forms of transportation. I do like my Scrap Deluxe from Velorbis. It's cool. But as beautiful as it is, it's just a way to get around.

If you had to choose one — and only one — bike route to do every day for the rest of your life, what would it be, and why?
I would start in Lynn Valley, North Vancouver and ride downhill to West Van where the route would morph into a bike lane along the Seine in Paris for a couple of kilometres or so before morphing into the Shibuya Crossing intersection in Tokyo where I'd wait for the lights and pedestrians. Then, on the other side of the intersection the route would morph into the Tiergarten before ending on Frederiksberg Allé from where I would roll on into the heart of Copenhagen.

What kind of sick person would force another person to ride one and only one bike ride to do for the rest of her / his life?
Probably a helmet advocate.

Do you ride both road and mountain bikes? If both, which do you prefer and why? If only one or the other, why are you so narrowminded?
What the fuck is a 'road' bike? I know mountain bikes, they were popular for 42 minutes in the mid-nineties. What a lot of silly terminology. I just ride a bike on the bike lanes.

Have you ever ridden a recumbent? If so, why? If not, describe the circumstances under which you would ride a recumbent.
No. Alcohol would be required.

Have you ever raced a triathlon? If so, have you also ever tried strangling yourself with dental floss?
Nope. Nope.

Suppose you were forced to either give up ice cream or bicycles for the rest of your life. Which would you give up, and why?
Ice Cream. I can't ride ice cream to the supermarket or to work.

What is a question you think this questionnaire should have asked, but has not? Also, answer it.
Am I really sitting here answering these questions at 22:06 on a Thursday evening?
Yes. Apparently I am. I'm cream-crackered and off to bed.

Now, tag three biking bloggers. List them below.
Drunk and in charge of a bicycle
Montréal Cykler
Bike in the City

Le Parking

The neverending search for parking.

Parking Made Elegant

There are few places in the world where the simple act of parking a bike is elevated to poetry, elegance and grace.

The Art of Parking Your Bike And Removing Your Bag From The Basket.

The Art of Double Decker Bike Parking At A Train Station.

The Art of Walking Away From Your Bike After Parking It.

The Art of Guarding Your Valuable Parking Spot.

The Art of Avoiding Bike Racks and Dogs Guarding Them #01

The Art of Avoiding Bike Racks and Dogs Guarding Them #02

The Art of Trying To Find Your Bike.

The Art of Removing Your Bike From The Bike Rack.

The Art of Buttoning Up Before Riding Away From the Bike Rack.

The Art of Sending a Text Message Before Riding Away From The Bike Rack.

The Art of Riding Away From The Bike Rack.