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Showing posts with the label "life in copenhagen"

Copenhagen's Gated Communities

I was thinking about my previous post about why Montreal has changed my perception of Copenhagen . I like my neighbourhood in the city of Frederiksberg, which is a municipality surrounded by Copenhagen municipality on all sides. My kids go to school and kindergarten here and you always seen people you know when you walk or cycle around. It's a bit dull if you think about liveable streets, though, as are many neighbourhoods in Copenhagen. In many ways, the reason is, in part, architectural. A majority of of the blocks of flats in the neighbourhoods surrounding the ancient city centre were slapped up in tact with the industrial revolution. Late 1800's to early 1900's. To accomodate the rush of workers who were moving to the city. Fair enough. But have a look at the map below. View Larger Map At first glance, there is a lot of green. Looks nice. But notice all those squares that surround the green spots. Those are courtyards. Nice courtyards, renovated in most cases with playg...

My Bike Was Stolen

Photo by Diego Franssens - from interview in Belgian magazine Knack. Saturday morning, 11:30. Came out of the flat with the kids, heading for a toy store to buy a present that Felix would then take to a birthday party. Lulu-Sophia and I would then run some errands and hang out in the backyard. All of this would happen with my red Bullitt cargo bike. Which, I discovered, wasn't where I parked it. First thought... "Hmm, I thought I parked it there..." Second thought... "Maybe I parked it in the other spot..." Third thought, gradual realisation... "It's been nicked..." Not a foreign line of thought. Hell, I've had loads of bikes stolen before. But the fourth thought really says all about the role of the bicycle in Copenhagen - and in my life: "Shit... how I am going to get around today?!" Standing there with two kids - Felix was on his own bike - with things to do, places to go and stuff to buy and the cargo bike rug was pulled out from...

Spring Cleaning in Copenhagen

Photo: Jens Dresling from Politiken. Spring cleaning in Copenhagen. Yet another harvest of bicycles are brought to the surface in Frederiksholm's Canal. Check out the photo series on Politiken's website .