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...

Movies from ice-skating on frozen canals in the Netherlands, February 2012

The "Dutch Ice Age Winter 2012" is over...unfortunately! However some videos are still there to remind us, all the enthusiastic ice-skaters, of this great time.



After several pictures and entries about the fantastic ice-skating between windmills and on frozen canals I would like to show you also two movies... The first movie was taken last Saturday in Kinderdijk (skating on frozen canal), the second movie is in Reeuwijk (skating on a frozen lake) -
enjoy them!

Ice-skating between windmills in Kinderdijk/ Schaatsen&windmolen in Kinderdijk, winter 2012

 

It is a fact: Ice-skating is the Dutch winter sport...in the last 10 days I have the feeling everyone got on the ice for skating:-) So this weekend I have decided to make this icy sport in an even more typical Dutch landscape, surrounded by "windmolen"(windmills)...Kinderdijk is very cute Dutch village with a lot of beautful, old windmills around and one could actually skate on canals having those on each side (right and left), not bad...Enjoy the colours of the sunset and the sunshine we had yesterday on ice:-)

Above in the afternoon, below-shortly before sunset.

...and two happy, but almost frozen (ouside was around minus 4-5) ice-skating enthusiasts:

 
The boat (above) one sees when leaving Kinderdijk is actually a .... building:-)

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!

Ice-skating in the Netherlands, season 2012/ Schaatsen op natuurijs in Nederland

 

When the negative temperatures stay long enough for the canals to freeze, the Dutch (and all other ice-skating lovers) start counting the days and the ice depth! This year we were lucky to have the cold and minus 16 to minus 7 (around the Hague, more in the rest of the country) over night for almost a week now and the natural ice skating rings got ready!

 
For the ones who don't know me: I am the one on the right below...

Ice-skating on frozen canals is something like national sport here. The people first clean the canals from the snow and then everyone gets on: with skates, shoes, sleights or something else! l do love it too, so today I enjoyed a sunny day ice-skating with some local colleagues!
One may skate on frozen canals or lakes or go to some official "ijsbanen" such as the frozen lake in Schipluiden, see last 2 pictures from sunny skating in club "Vlietland" before/by sunset there last Saturday!

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:-)