Issue 33: Copenhagen, on two wheels
The city is flat, the lanes are wide, and nobody wears a helmet or a hurry...
You can walk Copenhagen, and people do, and they are missing the point. The city was designed to be seen at twelve miles an hour, and the bicycle is not transport here. It is the city.
Renting
From a shop, not an app. A heavy black bike with a basket and one gear, which is one more than you need.
The rules
- Signal with your arm, always. Everyone does and the whole system runs on it.
- Stop at the red. It is a Danish thing.
- Do not ride on the pavement, ever, or an elderly woman will tell you so.
The route
Out along the harbour to the swimming baths, across the cycle bridge, through Christianshavn, and back by the lakes. Two hours with stops. Every stop is a coffee.
Nyhavn
Yes, go. It is the postcard and it is beautiful. Sit on the quay with a beer from the shop, not from the bar, and watch the boats. The bar is for people who did not read this letter.
One place, every Thursday
The letter, in your inbox, before it is on the site. Nothing else, ever.
Writes Signal from wherever he was last Thursday. Eleven years, sixty countries, one forty-litre bag.
Signal
A weekly travel letter: one place, one week, one opinion.