Weekend ice skating

Last weekend saw the best ice skating conditions in the Netherlands in more than a decade. Laura and I were very much hoping to join all the Dutch skaters on the frozen canals and lakes, but after spending much of Saturday afternoon in old town Delft unsuccessfully inquiring about skate rentals, we were forced to give up. The Dutch were not caught similarly unprepared, and thus the weekend contained all manner of organized ice skating tours, races, etc. throughout the country. Below is a nice video from a Dutch marathon race held over the weekend, and here's an unrelated but very nice picture.



All of the ice skating fun has also resulted in a doubling of hospital business, freaked out train operators, and the rescue of ten people and a dog who walked across the ice to Pampus Island in Amsterdam but weren't able to walk back because of a newly formed rift. If you look at a map, you'll see that Pampus Island is something like 2 miles from land. Having grown up much closer to the equator, I can't even fathom that amount of uninterrupted ice.

On Sunday we met Laura's mom, Pam, at the airport and spent the day walking around Amsterdam, where we were fortunate to stumble upon some very nice natural ice at Vondel Park. The closest we got to skating was walking across the ice there, which was rock solid (though the three of us still shared fears of falling through).

Unfortunately (or fortunately depending on your perspective), the weather is warming this week (it was a balmy 41°F today!) Thus, the Elfstedentocht looks increasingly unlikely. Maybe next year.

Cold Spell

We're in the second week of a cold spell here in Delft. The canals and other bodies of water are frozen. Speed skating is always a popular winter sport here that people like to watch on TV, but lately people are really catching ice skating fever: Tuesday morning on my way to work I rode by some guys playing ice hockey right outside my building; this evening on the way home I saw some children skating down a canal (again right outside my building); and of course all week I've heard other tales of people seeking out the best skating spots in local parks. The thing that really has people excited, though, is the chance that the Elfstedentocht ("Journey of Eleven Cities") could take place this year.

The Elfstedentocht is a speed skating competition held in Friesland (northern Netherlands) whenever the Dutch winter provides sufficiently thick ice. The course is along canals that connect 11 cities. According to Wikipedia, the ice has to be 15 cm (~6 in) thick along [nearly] the entirely of the course for the race to take place. The current forecast for next week is calling for ice thicknesses greater than 15 cm, so fingers across the Netherlands are crossed in hopes that the race could happen this year. I've been told that most people will watch the race on TV and that if I find myself alone at work one day soon, the race is the likely culprit. The last race happened in 1997 and only four have taken place in the last 50 years (4!). The winner last time took almost seven hours to finish and probably had ice hanging from his face at the end. The route is shown below in orange; zoom out to get a better idea of where it is in the country. If you can't see Delft on the map after zooming out, then know that we're located close to Den Haag, well south of the course. It's almost 200 km or 125 mi from Delft to the southernmost point on the race course by car - roughly the length of the race course itself!



View Larger Map