Ice and fun

Even though those two words never go together in my brain, I learnt since a week to appreciate the atmosphere surrounding this once-in-15-years event: Dutch can skate on "natural" ice again! My colleagues have twinklings in their eyes and are happy to share their interest with me. I therefore learnt a few cool facts: the ice should be 14 cm thick before the "11 cities contest" can be organized and this thickness generally requires 3 weeks of constant ice. It has to be so thick (you can skate on ice thinner than that) because of the amount of participants, the "11 cities contest" is THE ice-skating contest in The Netherlands. The minister of foreign affairs cancelled a meeting because "she had to go skatting" (actually so did my boss!) and the minister of defense broke his wrist while skatting during one of the many competions organized in the country. You better sharpen your skates yourself, the shops do it with machines that take off the rounding of the end. When you skate on canals in the city, you have to learn to fall on your belly so as to pass under the low little bridges, it is too boring to get off the ice and walk around the bridge...

this week-end at the Kinderdijk