Day One: Bike Exploration Day

 Less than 24 hours into my stay in Denmark and I already feel that my life has been changed forever. I came into this trip expecting beautiful bikeways and idyllic scenery, but my first day yesterday definitely blew my expectations out of the water. When I finally touched town after 12 hours of travel (8 of which I spent next to a small and vomiting child) the first thing I noticed out the window was the bike lane. In America you are lucky if you can figure out and coordinate getting to and from the airport quickly and easily via public transportation, but at the Copenhagen airport there were at least five (well marked) modes of transit to and from baggage claim-- train, metro, bus, bike, and rideshare. The bike lane was pristine, protected, and heavily used. I quickly observed that all bikeways in the city are this way. 

Our first assignment upon receiving our bikes at the hostel was to go out into the city and follow around a cyclist, observing the way they navigate. It was quite and adventure. With a steady rain to accompany us, I set out in the company of one of my fellow students and an unsuspecting stranger. The first thing I realized was that bikes have absolute right of way. What an amazing concept. Cars, busses, taxis, even pedestrians yield to bikes without question. Not to mention that the bike lane is elevated a few inches above the car lane so to create a physical difference between the two modes of travel. These bike lanes are like bike superhighways. You will never be alone if you are traveling by bike here. I was surrounded the entire time by anywhere from five to 25 bikers, all using bikes as their primary commuting tool. I have never felt so safe and like I belong while biking in an urban setting. It will certainly be a rough transition to go back to biking in America. 

I have so much more to say, but this post is long enough. 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Three Days, Three Bike Marathons: The Danish Isles

Image
I don't consider myself a cyclist, but I do love using my bike as my main tool to get from point A to point B. The past few days, we have been doing some longer distance rides and it has been a highly satisfying and enjoyable experience. I have never done a long distance ride before, as most of my trips are just around an urban setting, so the thought of doing three days of 28 mile rides was a bit intimidating, but I was excited at the opportunity to push myself and try a new style of biking.  When we left Copenhagen for the countryside, we took two trains, and on a side note, this was the most pleasant train experience I've ever had. The station was clean and beautiful, and the train car was also clean and very comfortable. There was designated places to put your bike and luggage, and it all felt very futuristic and precise. The trains have a very regular schedule that factor in waiting for other trains to pass, so that you don't have unexpected delays. For longer land tra...
Read more

A Rough 24 hours

Image
 A few days ago we were on our way back to our lodgings from Nijmegen and Nina and I were thinking that we would like to see what the healthcare system is like here in the Netherlands. We brainstormed and decided that the best way to do this would be to roughhouse on our bikes to the point where we would lose control of ourselves and crash to the pavement, hopefully injuring ourselves in the process. So we did just that, and Nina sustained a really excellent face laceration and I managed to escape with nothing more than a scraped knee and a bruised ego.  After initial impact, Nina and I were sitting on the side of the road, waiting for one of the trip leaders, Floris, to come rescue us. We were quite the sight with Nina's head gushing blood, and our bikes strewn around us, yet none of the passerby's even glanced our way. We were prepared to remain on the curb for the next 20 minutes while Floris was on his way, but after about two minutes, this rather severe older Dutch woman ...
Read more

Playground Tour

Image
 To recap the last several days I have three main takeaways from Copenhagen: One, everyone is beautiful. I have not seen a single person who could not be a model as their fallback career if something went arigh for them. Two, biking is king but you have to know what you're doing or a (beautiful) local will yell at you. Three, it does not matter where you are going, what street you go down, anywhere you pass through will feel safe and be absolutely stunning. I will continue to rant about the perfection of this place in a future post (or two), but for this one I want to talk specifically about the playground touring activity that we did yesterday (6/23). Copenhagen is all about freedom of movement for both adults and kids.The bike is the most useful tool to promote this idea as it is extremely versatile and easy to use and in Copenhagen biking is usually the fastest mode of transportation for getting anywhere in the city. So because it is so easy and safe to move in the city here, ki...
Read more