Ice crazy

NL, Jan '09
Originally uploaded by jogjasweet.

Its been a very historical past few weeks here in Holland. Since around Christmas time, its been relatively cold, by Dutch standards. Its been below zero (celcius) several days in a row, and its been so cold that the canals are freezing over all over the Netherlands. This has not happened in twelve years! The Dutch are going crazy for skating! It is in their blood, in their culture, yet they have been unable to skate on natural ice in twelve whole years. This past weekend, over 200,000 Dutchies took to the ice. Of course there is a fair share in injuries and accidents, since they are not used to the ice, either falling down and breaking wrists or falling through thin ice. Surprisingly there has only been one death (of falling through the ice). It is definitely a special sight to see, kids playing on the iced over canals in the twilight hours of the evening, some for the first time in their lives.

The ice is so important for these dutchies, that even last week Friday, some government agencies gave their employees the option to leave work at 1pm without taking vacation time, to go ice skating!!! They call it "ijsvrij", or "ice free". Unbelievable!!! Way to go, Ministry of Foreign Affairs for setting the standards...

The only unfortunate thing is that the Dutch couldn't have their famed "11 city tour", which is a one day tour/race of ice skating on the canals to 11 cities in Friesland. They are only allowed to do it if the ice is at least 15cm thick.

I come from the land of cold, snow, and ice: the frozen tundra as we so endearingly call it. But I am not used to riding my bike in below 0 degree weather! I also have not ice skated in several years, nor gone sledding (which I would love to do at any time, but there are no hills here at all!). But there is definitely something special about enjoying something so simple (to me) as ice, and seeing the landscape transformed from being dotted with cows and sheep to being dotted by skaters with orange hats.