Copenhagen Snow Gliding

Gliding through the winter landscape with ease and grace.

Ditto.

The Bicycle Waltz

Lovely video from my friend Mike Rubbo, documentary filmmaker, of cyclists waltzing in Amsterdam. Brilliant. Check out his blog advocating upright bicycles for the people - Sit Up Cycle.

Motion Still

Three people in Copenhagen. Two in motion. One not.

Dual Acceleration

Red Glove and Hat Acceleration.

Hat and Brilliant Curls Acceleration.

Snowtime

Classy Copenhageners making winter cycling look so good.

Seasons Greeting from Cycle Chic!

At the exact time that this post goes live I'll be seated at mother-in-law's amazing yule dinner table. It's a legendary spread. Roast pork and roast duck with potatoes, candied potatoes, red cabbage and gravy, among other things.

Afterwards it's rice pudding with an single almond hidden inside. Whoever gets the almond in their portion gets a present.

After dinner we decorate the tree and light the candles on it. Then we sing and dance around the tree. 'Dance' is really a funny word to use, but that's what it's called. We hold hands and walk around the tree. The songs are mostly childrens songs for the benefit of the kids. Then... finally... we sit in the living room and open our presents.

At some point, Father Christmas comes by, in the form of a friend of ours. He gives presents to the kids. Then yours truly pops down to his house to put on the costume and do the same for their kids.

We didn't fancy the idea of getting a christmas tree this year so I'll have to reblog the above, me and the kids heading home with the tree.

The seasonal celebration is called 'jul' in Denmark, from the Old Norse 'jól'. It lives on in English with 'yule'. Originally a pagan festival celebrated at this time of year, the christian influence highjacked the ceremony but the original name lives on. Kind of like the pagan symbol of fertility for the spring festivals - the hare - who still shows up at easter.

December 25 was the first day of the pagan calendar and people used to celebrate all night long to honour the 'divine mothers'.

Here's some more photos of bicycles and christmas trees.

Cycle Chic wishes you all a very happy season and thanks to all our readers!

Competition Prize Winner

Rest assured, the winner of the Cycle Chic/ Velorbis Climate Conference Gorgeousness Competition has contacted us. Lauren, from San Francisco, will be in Denmark for a while and the logistics of getting the Velorbis Studine bicycle to her were tricky, so we're going to do it after New Years.

In the meantime, Felix and I picked up the bicycle from our friends at Velorbis yesterday and the fine bicycle will be parked in one of our bicycle sheds until which time Lauren will take possession of it.

And isn't that a cool snowman we made?!

Cycle Chic Rhymes With Smile

Well On The Way To...

;-) (Couldn´t help throwing in another mood (another planet?)).

Anyway, I would like to thank all you CycleChic persons who have commented on my shots since I started posting more than a year ago. The encouragement has been great.
I just had a special christmas gift: I had a photo published on the quite prestigious photo art site 1x.com (a.k.a. OnExposure). So this is also my present to You:

( See her at 1x.com )
I hope you forgive the subliminal bike content: She is indeed walking her bicycle!

Merry Christmas!

Shortest Day of the Year

The shortest day of year.
Sunrise: 8:39
Sunset: 15:36

This presupposes that you can actually see the sun.
All I see is snowfall.

However, from today the days start getting longer.
We're on our way to summer!

Snowpenhagen Zoom

This Copenhagener was riding past a demonstration in the snow, glancing over at the chanting protesters.

Dreamers on Bicycles

Max Pinckers is a Belgian photographer with a splendid series of portraits of cycling commuters called 'Transitions'. Thanks to our mates at CycleChic.be for the tip.

‘With the series Transitions, I explore this idea by making an attempt to ‘catch’ people as they are dissociated from the encompassing world, deeply entranced in their own thoughts and absorbed in whatever is going through their mind.

The people in these images are cycling on a long and straight daily commuter route. When we cycle we’re disconnected from the world around us, we dream and ponder whilst mechanically riding along a familiar, somewhat mundane path.

Submerged into an ‘absorptive mode,’ people’s expressions depict themselves in an honest way – unposed, unconcerned and unaware of either the photographer or the camera. The relation between the photographer and the subject has therefore been obscured, something which provokes us to ask ourselves if these really are portraits.’

Brilliant series. Beautiful.


Thanks to Stefan for the link.

Urban Motion and Mobility

Alas, the Theatre of Dreams that was the Copenhagen Climate Conference ended up being the Arena of Apathy. All that build up and hype, all that unprecedented participation by world leaders, all that hope and expectation... hmm.

Where does that leave us? Us right here and us out there? On our bicycles. Muscling our way through a snowstorm, gliding through the summer light. On our bicycles. Cycling is part of the global solution. A tripling of cycling in Europe, at the expense of individual motorized trips, would eliminate 5% of C02 transport emissions.

While we need municipal politicians to invest in infrastructure, it all starts with the individual. All you need is a bicycle. We are all two-wheeled, human-powered monuments of hope and action.

Snowflakealicious

Ooh, I just made up a "Mikaelism" ;-)
Anyway, I like the way that these ladies are keeping spririts high in conditions that could be viewed as demanding. I am likely to say that it is a feature of scandinavians. I know that in many sports, we tend to have an advantage in really bad weather. Perhaps because our normal weather is the other guys terrible weather, hehe.

Supermadre y padre

Here's Claudia. She's Mexican and lives here in Copenhagen. We met on a bike ride with the Mayor of Mexico City last week and she knows this blog well. She admitted that she always checks the blog in the hopes of perhaps seeing herself under the Supermum category.

Her kids weren't with her that day, nor was the cello they transport around, so we'll have to fix that on a later occasion.

For now, this lovely Copenhagen supermadre gets to grace our blog and gets our respect for riding her trusty cargo bike around our fair city. Lovely to meet you, Claudia!


In the interest of equality, allow us to present a Copenhagen superpadre on his cargo bike in the bitter cold.