Friday, March 30, 2007

The Bike Parade to Bakken

Bakken is København's other amusement park. Less famous, older, cheaper, in the suburbs, and decidedly blue collar, Bakken is the place to go for amusement if you're a local or a drunk Swede. Opening night is celebrated with a massive bike parade from Nørrebro to the famous red gate. Over 5,000 bikes of all shapes, sizes, and vintages make the 10km trip.

This is a Nimbus, the only bike ever designed and manufactured in Denmark. The company shut down many years ago and now these bikes are obvious collectors' items.

If you ever see a bike with this emblem, go ahead and yell out "Hvordan gør det?!" because there's a 99% chance the owner is a proud Dane. Avoid striking up an extended conversation though, because this owner is likely a rabid enthusiast able to drone on for hours about the best bike ever made.

Many of the bikes were works of art, ancient, or just something out of the ordinary, but this one took the cake. Talk about self-expression.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Correction - many of the bikes were shite. C'mon! You could have posted a picture of at least ONE real bikle.