It's been a while since we've written about cycling to IKEA in Copenhagen. I headed out there with the kids yesterday to pick up a few things. Lulu on the Bullitt and Felix on his bike. Lulu clearly drew the long straw, especially considering the rolling terrain you meet once you leave the city. She sang the whole way.
Above and below are some photos from the journey.
One of the most popular articles on this blog was a few years ago. IKEA did a transport study of their customers and found out, to their surprise, that about 25% of their customers rode bicycles or took public transport. They promptly started a bike borrowing scheme to accommodate their customers who wanted to get their stuff home by bike and trailer. They were surprised, but shouldn't have been. Only 29.1% of Copenhageners own a car so other transport options are a given.
You may also recall an earlier trip to IKEA that I documented a few years ago. This is a different route than the one we took yesterday, cycling along one of the motorways leading in and out of the city. In both cases, there are safe, separated cycle tracks the entire way.
If I had wanted to go the IKEA west of Copenhagen, there are cycle tracks on that route, too. In this post about cycling 30 km to christmas, I passed the other IKEA, so you can get an idea of the route.
If you're interested in the route yesterday, we tracked it on the Endomondo app.
The trip out.
The trip back.
You can Streetview the route if you like.
We tracked it for fun. To see how long it took and then, on the way home, to see if Felix and I could beat the time. On the trip back, I forgot to turn off the app until we were in the house, but it gives you an idea.
The Endomondo app is cool if you're into stuff like that. It has "Cycling - Transport" as an option, which is about all I need. Although I don't need it very often. Very few people I know in Copenhagen know how many kilometres they ride - they just know how long it takes.
I don't really get people in other countries who boast about their XXXX km/miles a year. Sure, nice with some stats I suppose, if you're into that but when you are a regular bicycle user, you don't seem to need to prove you are. You just get on with it.
I'll always ride to IKEA. If there is something too large to carry home on the bicycle - like beds and stuff - I'll get it brought out by their delivery service and ride home by bicycle with as much as I can carry.
Along the route yesterday there were a few other Copenhageners on cargo bikes heading back and forth and many on bicycles. Makes sense, really, for many IKEA trips.