Those
Cycling Danes
W
|
eekdays on my morning run, and later
trotting down the same street to Charlottenlund Station, north of Copenhagen, I
pass three show windows full of shiny new bicycles. The bearded and besmocked
proprietor, I used to think, had the shortest memory of anybody I’d ever said Goddaw du! (Good day, you!) to. One
morning he would wave and return my greeting with a sunny smile. Next day he’d
look at me as if he’d never seen me before, knit his brows and nod.
This went on until one day, jogging past
the bike store, I did a double-take and came near to
heading for the closest eye doctor. There were
two of him lining up bicycles on the sidewalk! Same short skinny frame in a
faded green smock. Same skew-nosed face with rusty-brown beard and mustache. Only
one difference in behavior saved my sanity: one of him waved
and said Goddaw du! while the other just looked and nodded.
The Teglgaard brothers must be the only
identical twins in Denmark who run a bicycle shop. Viewed head-on, 41-year-old[i]
Bonde and Christian look as if they stepped off a box of Smith Brothers cough
drops. Originally from south Jutland, where their father was a bicycle dealer,
they live next door to each other in Allerød, each with his wife and three children.
They sell several world makes and accessories to customers from all around.
 |
| The Teglgaard twins run a bicycle shop in Charlottenlun. |
Enormous
Comeback
Three-quarters of this nation’s 5.1 million[ii]
population own at least one bicycle. The last decade has seen an enormous
comeback of the noiseless, fumeless, fuel-free and parkable two-wheeler,
according to Lars Skovenboe, office manager of the 33,000-member Danish Bicyclist
Federation.
“For the Danes, the bicycle is much more
than a . . . Sunday pastime for nature lovers,” writes the Copenhagen-based
American Ed Thomasson in Danish Quality
Living. “It is basic to a life-style that gives that touch of quality
visitors so admire about Denmark. It is everyday transportation.”
A nationwide sampling of the full-time
working population in 1982 revealed that 38% — many more than before the last
oil crisis — ride their bikes to work. That compared with a dwindling 35% driving
cars and carrying another 8% as passengers, 29% taking public transportation
and 13% walking to work. It was especially 18- to 28-year-old men living in
Aarhus, Odense and Aalborg who were swelling the brigade of workaday
pedal-pushers.
The total exceeds 100% because some
commuters use more than one form of transportation. Look at the bicycles
stabled outside every station in the country and, in Copenhagen, at the big
circular bike-stand on the east side of Town Hall Square. People park the stationcykler they pedal from station to
office and back, leaving them — locked, if they want to see them again — in the
racks. Many have another bike at home for running errands and pleasure touring.
Niels Johansen is a man with one bike and
one mission. Denmark’s 76-year-old “steel grandfather” intends to make a
childhood dream come true: pumping “my good old bike and a trailer” all over the
country. Camping out most nights, Johansen expects to mow down 4,000 kilometers
of asphalt in four months.
Now
It’s Going To Be!
He will visit places he knew as a boy,
towns where relatives lived. ‘’I’m not out to set a record,‚ insists the
bereted and bespectacled pensioner. ’’This is something I’ve wanted to do my
whole life, but work and children prevented it. Now I’m a widower and now it’s going
to be!’’
For thousands of pedaling vacationers, half
the fun is taking the family. Aase Elers, an English
teacher at Vallerød School north of Copenhagen,
tells me she and her husband and two sons have spent their last six or seven
summer holidays biking. Not only in Denmark, but in Sweden and Ireland. ‘’You set
the daily tempo yourself,’’ says my fellow-fiddler in The Hamlet Strings. “You
really see the landscape from a bike, smell all the aromas, get to meet amazingly
helpful people you never meet otherwise. The same goes for your own family: you’re
together day round, you help one another, you’re on the same level — of you,
parents and children.”
Elers calls Denmark a “very child-friendly”
country for bikers. Cycle paths separate two-wheelers from motor traffic over
most of the nation. “And there is not so much distance between towns and
campsites or hostels, where there are always play activities for children and
your kids meet other kids. So it’s very easy to take even little children
along.”
Did you know you can take your bicycle as
one of two pieces of checked baggage aboard your flight to Denmark or
elsewhere, without extra charge?[iii]
Maximum length is 135 centimeters with pedals and wheels removed and handlebars
turned sideways.
Sell
at Half-Price
You can rent a bike at places like
Københavns Cyklebørs and roll with the Copenhageners. Bureaus such as DVL
Rejser (Tel. 01-13 27 27) offer bike, tent and map for eight- and nine-day
tours from 745 kroner.[iv]
A few shops, such as the Teglgaard twins in Charlottenlund (Tel. 01-64 20 46),
will sell you a touring bike and then buy it back at half price after a week or
two.
A good tip for used-bike seekers: Look
under Cykler in the weekly national
classified-ad tabloid called Den Blå Avis
(The Blue Newspaper).[v]
That’s where I found my like-new, three-gear Danish Mustang for about $100 and
where milady found a well kept roundabout bike for about $36.
“If you’re in Denmark for more than a
couple of days,” says Lars Skovenboe, “come to our office at Kjeld Langesgade
14, beside the lakes, and we can help you. DCF offers a free booklet, Bicycle Holidays in Denmark.
SCANORAMA July-August 1985
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