Ice-skating in the Netherlands winter 2013/ Schaatsen op naturrijs in 2013

 

The last 2 weeks in the Netherlands have been extremely white! We had few snowfalls which are still visible due to the (almost all the time) minus temperatures outdoor. Of course with all of this cold the ice-skating fever started too and for around now one week one could skate on several frozen lakes and canals. Most of them are maintained and even cleaned by ice-skating clubs...With good skating buddies I had the pleasure to skate on few of the lakes aroudn the Hague (we went to Vogelplas next to Leitschendam, Rottemeren next to Bleiswijk with some windmills and last but not lest Reeuwijk, having 13 connected with eachother lakes)... As you can see from the pictures every day there were different conditions, sometimes ice like mirro with cloudy weather and freezing wind, sometime sblue sky and sunshines, or sky with white clouds and windmills in the background...Enjoy the winterland tour:-)))

 

And below is how a perfect sunny day ice-skating looks like! Reeuwijk on thursday 24.01.20013...

Reeuwijkse Plassen and more ice-skating, winter 2012 /Schaatsen in Reeuwijk, Nederland 2012

 
Yesterday the weather service in the Netherlands informed us that the first 10 days of February 2012 have been the coldest since... 95 years!!! Wowww.....

 

Next to Gouda (the famous cheese city) one may find the so called lake area Reeuwijkse Plassen, which presents 13 lakes connected with small or bigger canals. As you can imagine this becomes one really huge natural ice-skating rink when it freezes! What I have done 2 years ago and was happy to repeat this year is arriving at the harbour cafe "Het Wappen van Reeuwijk", putting on the skates and slide on the frozen lake just in front of it...

 

Some of the local houses on the lake were selling warm drinks and warm soup to the skaters (above advertisement was written with red on snow).

 

One could also skate on the Brevevaart, the canals in front of the cafe, which were nicely cleaned with machine. For the kids there were several attraction such as ice-sleight, with metal picks. Sometimes a "Plassentocht" (a tour of all lakes by skates) is organised. This year only the lake in front of "Het Wappen van Reeuwijk" was cleaned  and ready for safe ice-skating. A great thing to do once one get too cold is to have  a warm chocolate, tea or glühwein in the very cozy cafe!

Some more skating on frozen Dutch lakes:-)

Exactly when everyone was praying that the spring should come quicker, the winter decided to surprise and proof us wrong....and the canals/lakes in the Netherlands got frozen again. Which means nothing else than SPORT on ICE.

The Dutch are very creative so the frozen lake in Reeuwijk is not used only for ice-skating but also for biking, sleighing, even for have a walk with the babies while skating, of course:-)