Frisbee Outdoor Competition Day 2

On Sunday we trekked all the way to the University of Twente in Enschede - practically in Germany - for the second outdoor competition day in the Dutch Ultimate Frisbee League. Despite the long journey, we were fortunate to be far from the coast; weather in Enschede was beautiful and sunny with temperatures well above 70 °F. Meanwhile, the east of the country was easily 10-15 °F colder, overcast, and rainy.


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The University of Twente is basically in the middle of nowhere and hidden in thick tree cover. This makes the campus more picturesque than most Dutch universities. (TU Delft, for instance, looks vaguely like WW II just ended due to construction in the heart of campus, and TU Eindhoven has the distinct misfortune of being in Eindhoven.) On this day the most notable feature of the campus were the remnants of what must have been the biggest student party in the history of the universe - piles of beer bottles, people sleeping on the lawns, tents, half-dismantled stages, people walking with enormous backpacks, etc.

The event turned out to be an 18-hour overnight race from Nijmegen to Enschede, culminating in the massive campus party that we had just missed. We still had two frisbee games to brighten our day, though. We won our second game handily but lost our first to the other best team in our division. This ultimately kept us from advancing to a higher division next month. Even with the unfortunate loss, it's hard to complain about spending a nice day on soft grass in the sun.



More pictures on Flickr...

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.