Winter sun

The first sleet of this winter briefly appears in Aarhus. The winters sun tries to make it’s presence felt over the church spires.

hot air balloons over Aarhus

Caught these hot air balloons floating over my apartment in Aarhus and on out to the sea.  

Long weekend in Copenhagen

Pic of the Nyhavn (New Harbour) in Copenhagen. Usually you see this harbour road from street level. It’s one of the ‘can’t be missed’ places. But here is one from the sea.

 So here we are. Stuck in a Danish office on a Saturday (Lørdag) with a tin of salmon, and no tin opener.
The resourceful ex-boy-scout finds a really heavy part on an old ATM an the knife that he did remember to bring. And bashed the knife through the tin. Dinner was had. Result.

The bike shed

One of the many bike sheds around Aarhus. It’s always this full. And for those that don’t know Aarhus (Denmark), it’s built on a very large hill, so cycling here is certainly not popular due to the flat land. It’s the plentiful cycling infrastructure and dedicated bike lanes that are the reason. Most bike lanes are separate from the roads. And it’s not been an easy task to install them. They are virtually all retrofitted as the place was not originally designed with bike lanes. Actually the work is ongoing, they are still installing lanes where non currently exist. Proof that it can be done.

The bike shed is by Bruuns shopping centre.  

Sculptures, probably.

 

I cycled over to the Exhibition ground in Aarhus and found these, err Sculptures, they are calling them.

When did Shipping Containers stuck in the sand become art!

Interesting though I guess...  

Emerald Princess

Jesus! Look what I found in my back garden! This is bloody enormous!

I did wonder why there were so many Japanese/Chinese/Americans in Aarhus last night.

It’s the   Emerald Princess.

Balcony view

Just a random video shot from the balcony of my apartment.

Classic Race Aarhus

Went to the Classic Race Aarhus on Sunday. They race all sorts of formula round a closed road circuit.

Difficult to get pics from behind the safety fence but here are a few snaps.

I know I’m meant to be a rabid cyclist, but I love watching cars race as sport. I just don’t see them as much use as day to day transport.

classic cars

Next weekend the is a classic car race on some closed public roads in Aarhus. They are already showing some of the cars in the courtyard by the Cathedral.

  www.craa.dk

What's this.

So what’s going on here. They’ve put up a large greenhouse thingy on the church roof. A new observation platform for Ashtoners?

Probably not.

Aarhus, Scaering beach.

Took myself off for a bike ride up the coast north from Aarhus today. Found this unexpected beach of white sand. It’s at a place called Scaering. Still to chilly for sunbathing though!

The city of Aarhus is way off in the distance on this photo.

Dog in Buggy!

I always thought it was the English that were dog lovers, but here the Danes ferry their dogs around in child buggies! Now that’s just spoiling the dog I say!
:-)

Aarhus harbour

So I randomly managed to get the lap-top and the mobile, Blue-toothing with each other again. Still don’t really know what I did to fix it. Anyway, I took a snap of the view from my apartment balcony showing the harbour in Aarhus. The white ship that can be seen is the ferry to Odden on Zealand, which is the island that Copenhagen is on. Occasionally Danish war ships moor here along with regular merchant vessels. All very nautical. Actually I know nothing of the sea and ports, but I seam to be learning stuff as I watch the ships come and go.   

Angry Blue Teeth!

My Blue tooth phone will no longer connect to my computer.


So after an hour of trying every option/setting on both the laptop and the phone, and setting them to discoverable etc. they both say the other does not exist. This means I have no way of uploading photos until I retrieve my camera from England. Don’t you just hate computers (and I work in I.T.!!)

The Bells!

I have a problem with my new apartment. Here is a short clip of the level crossing out side the building I live in. This bell ringing goes on randomly from 4:30 in the morning till midnight! So, that’s me waking up at 4:30 every single day. Unhappy.

Every day scene.

I don’t have a camera yet here in Aarhus, Denmark. Just my dodgy mobile phone camera, which will have to do for now. Also I don’t have a broadband connection, so I’m very limited on what I can post. I have a favourite cafe that does Wi-Fi so I get one hour to do everything I need to online. One hour is not enough! I’ll do a piece on the Danish cycling infrastructure when I’m more sorted out, but it’s far and away better than the UK. Bikes have right-of-way on roundabouts. Cars actually stop on the roundabout and let you trundle round to your desired turn off. Also bike lanes running along side a main road have right-of-way over traffic turning off/on the main road. A bike lane in the UK would have a row of dashes across it indicating that you should give way. Again, here cars actually stop and wait for you to pass by, before turning off the main road. Try that too often in Manchester and you’d get squashed.

Oh, hours up, must dash...

Danish art?

Spotted this ‘sculpture’ on the way back from the pub one night.

It is almost artistic.

What!

No idea what they’re selling here. Those crazy Danes!

Red Ways

The Red Ways of Milton Keynes are a great help to the commuting cyclist. Red Ways are for use by pedestrians and cyclists. The tarmac is not really red, but defiantly a shade of pinky grey. There are also bridal ways for horses although not so many of these. The Red Ways typically run along side the road, but are almost always totally segregated. Wonderful. But they could have been better by simply labelling up the Red Ways with the name of the road it follows. As a newcomer to MK, I got totally lost on them. The problem is that they defiantly don’t always follow the road, and can disappear into a housing estate. Trying to find your way out and recover your direction is a matter of trial and error. That said, they are far better than anything in my home town area, Manchester. Imagine the Fallowfield Loop, but all over Manchester. The thorny question of how to get a push bike across a roundabout is totally solved by bridges for the use of pedestrians and cyclists. This type of infrastructure could not realistically be retrofitted to Manchester. But, all in all, a pretty good solution for Milton Keynes. 
     

A Red Way cycle route with bridal way alongside.

  

Here is a Red Way / Bridal way crossing.

Wheelers Brunch

So the first Wheels Brunch arranged by LC at naturallycyclingmanchester went well. About 20 people showed up for breakfast in Odder Bar, Oxford Road, Manchester.
Nice to meet some of the other Cycling Bloggers. We didn’t just chant about nerdy cycling things and cameras, oh no. We talker about ... OK, there was a lot of cycling chat to be honest.

Some of us struggled to find it. Me included. But is there any wonder. Can you find it in the shot below. Well I guess you can, but that sign is not jumping out at me along side all the other neon lights of Metropolis Manchester.

So here is the cycle rack, amply packed with ‘Wheelers Brunch’ bikes.

Cycle to work

Been watching some of the cycle videos that have been posted on some of the cycle blogs. Don’t know why, but they fascinate me, way beyond their actual visual content would merit. So I thought I’d try doing one. Now I don’t have a cycling camera, but my trusty Kodak V705 does have a video option. I don’t use that much, but duct taped it to the front of my bike and cycled into work, and back again. It was taken today, a Sunday, so I didn’t actually go into the office, but it’s my regular journey.
Click: Cycle to work.
Click: Cycle to home.