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.

55.6° N, -15° Windchill

One of our friend's mentioned that we're going to feel a windchill of -15 this week. Luckily, we haven't. But here's what it looks like when it does come.

Copenhagen Summertime

Some of you may have noticed that Mikael hasn't been the one posting the last few blog entries. Because the lucky dog is on holiday in Croatia.  So, while he's gone, we're taking advantage of Copenhagen's own little seaside escape. 

The beach is close, but not central to the city, so bicycles (and the metro) are the most popular way to get there.

Beachside bars with signs that read 'open when the sun is shining', vendors selling fresh green peas and ripe cherries, and gently rotating wind mills create a pretty warm landscape to complement the city's otherwise Nordic Cool attitude. Not bad Copenhagen, not bad at all.

Good Design

There is something relaxing, visually pleasing, satisfying even, about objects that are organised nicely and neatly.  Probably why we are fans of the photo blog, Things Organized Neatly.  So, we set out to find examples of bicycles organised neatly.  Something like this...

Photo shoot for Jopo Bikes.
or this...

Bamboo getting ready to be made into bicycles in Sao Paulo.
Occasionally the City of Copenhagen does a nice job cleaning up and organising the bikes for us.  Not least with their Bicycle Butlers.

One of the closest every day sights we found, was this arrangement at a Copenhagen train station.  Adequate, efficient, and typical Scandinavian minimalism.

More often than not, it's slightly more chaotic, bicycles ending up like a heap of stuffed animals.  Loved, well-used, lost, sometimes forgotten.

Do you have examples of good design? Design that encourages order and aesthetics and would organise all these bicycles neatly.  We'd love to see it.

Another Summer Shot

Few things beat hanging out with your buddies in the Copenhagen Summer Sun. Spring will hopefully be here soon.

Copenhagen Fashion Week 03

This couple were just leaving the fashion event during Copenhagen Fashion Week.

These girls were just arriving and looking for bike parking.

And this girl went to a completely different event in another part of town.

The Nocturnal Role of Copenhagen Bicycles

The bicycle has an integral role in Copenhagen nightlife. Only 40% of Copenhageners own cars so when the surburbanites motor on home after work, we get visions of what our city looks like with hardly any cars. It's especially on weekend nights that the bicycles really rule this town.

Like here in the Meatpacking District - Kødbyen. This is the bicycle parking outside just one of the many bars. All the other bars - in the meatpacking district and the rest of the city feature the same view.


Outside Mesteren og Lærlingen there was a cargo bike parked and it was a cosy place to hang out for a chat.

Or to send text messages, planning the rest of the night's activities, hooking up with friends, or what have you.

All throughout the city, bicycles are in motion all night long.

As are friends of mine, frolicking outside another bar.


It's how you get to where you're going and it's how you get home in the wee hours. And yes, red heels look best with a red bicycle. Duh.

The nightlife in Copenhagen goes all night. Preferably well into the morning. When the birds start singing and the Nordic sun starts to rise, you know it's been a good night out.

Parking Grace

The Art of Parking Bicycles With Grace and Style.


And while we're on the subject of grace and style, let us lament the fact that bicycle bells no longer look this fine.


Fortunately, it's not too late to order the Cycle Chic Calendar for 2010 so that grace and style is on your wall for the next 365 days. Give or take.

Parking

The other day I came across two incidents of rather stylish bike parking. Or perhaps it wasn´t just the parking...

Coolest Bike Parking in the World

I've not seen such cool bike parking in ages. At my hotel in San Francisco - the W Hotel - they have three Danish Biomega bicycles for guests to use free. Okay, three isn't much, but it's what they do with them that counts.

It's like a museum the way they hang them up on the wall like that. You ask the valet for a bicycle and he walks over with a crank and proceeds to lower - slowly and cerimoniously - the bicycle to the ground. Now THAT is style over speed!


I rode the bicycle during the Halloween Critical Mass and the next day, too, with some friends. A one-speed on the hills of San Francisco. Easy peasy. Photo by Kristin somewhere on Valencia.

Here's what other bikes I've been riding whilst travelling.

Finding the Spot...

...to park. Not everybody does a good job at it. The white bike to the left seems to be parked by a rather parking challenged person, but often bypassers will just move a misplaced bike to a more appropriate place. Usually no big deal.

CopenDemoGuide

Here is a small guide to going to demonstrations or public concerts at the Town Hall Square (Rådhuspladsen) in Copenhagen:


1. See if it's something for you.


2. Look for your friends.


3. Park your bicycle.


4. Hang out with the one you love.


5. Make more people come over.


6. Leave. If with a cargo bike, make a peloton. The more, the merrier.

Blue Basket & Parking Problems

A lovely blue basket on a Sunday afternoon.


Looking for parking - Copenhagen Style - on a Saturday night.

Cloche to Tokyo

Tokyo style outside a train station. That's bicycle parking in the background. That's style in the foreground.

And repeat.

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.