Exploring Europe by train and folding bicycle: the Freitag Grand Tour
James Greig | June 13, 2014
Swiss bag makers Freitag have sent photographer Jörg Koopmann and journalist Michael Hugentobler off around Europe with train tickets and folding bicycles.
Refreshingly, there is no set agenda for their trip, “except for reporting every now and then on their movements, encounters, and discoveries” on the Grand Tour website.
But how does that affect the working process of the duo responsible? As Jörg puts it:
Carte blanche means that people have sent me/us off and expect me to produce good work about places, people and situations, and none of the participants know precisely what they will turn out to be like. This a great challenge, a great responsibility, and a great joy. I trust my intuition and hard-earned luck, just like always.
Checking in most recently from Poland, the duo have also written about the cycling paradise that is Copenhagan (where they met Copenhagenize‘s urban cycling advocate Mikael Colville-Andersen) and Swiss writer Alain de Botton’s School of Life here in London.
As demonstrated by their view of Hackney’s Broadway Market as “a perfect street“, both the writing and the photography is charmingly genuine. And like any good travel journal, the Grand Tour lets you see even your home city with fresh eyes.
Posted to Features
by James Greig
