For those of you that don’t know what Copenhagenized means, head on over to Copenhagenize.com, one of my favourite blogs.
In essence, it is all about the pervasive bicycle culture that Copenhagen’s become famous for. Mikael Colville Anderson, the man behind that blog, says even he is not quite sure about what exactly Copenhagenize means, but it certainly advocates more cycling.
Today was just a normal Sunday, except of course it wasn’t quite normal at all. After all, how often do you have an actual WW2 Spitfire come roaring over your house? The Spitfire was part of a display put on up on Plymouth Hoe, as today is Armed Forces day.
After lunch I cycled out to the Hoe with my youngest. To be fair, having been a soldier once, a long time ago in a different life, I do not wish any of my children to become enthralled by the false glamour surrounding men with guns, so I’m not overly fond of taking my kids to displays like this.
Fortunately, by the time we got to the Hoe all the pomp & ceremony was finished, and my youngest was soon bored.
What struck me was not the military displays, but the amount of cyclists out and about. I have in the twelve years I’ve lived in Plymouth never seen as many cyclists. They were everywhere!
As per Copenhagenize.com, these weren’t “sporty” cyclists, but rather normal, everyday people, most in normal, everyday clothes.
Ironically, while ceremonies on the Hoe celebrated the courage and sacrifice of so many English and allied people who fought to defeat Germany, today was different as Germany & England met in Bloemfontein, South Africa, in a football world-cup match that saw England being crushed.
With South Africa having failed to make the knock-out stages, and now with England out of the world cup, I’ve lost interest in it.
Still, I hope the increased number of cyclists in Plymouth will be a permanent thing.