And again, it won’t happen

Well, that was that then. There’s no hope anymore. And we were all so looking forward to it. It united the nation. Hundreds of people volunteered to try and make it possible, but since yesterday evening we all know better. It won’t happen. The Elfstedentocht won’t go on.

If it wasn’t so disappointing, it would be funny. Earlier this week I posted about people suffering from the Eleven Cities Tour Fever after only one night of frost. Television programs were dedicated to the 200 kilometres (124.2 miles) long ice skating tour on natural ice, past 11 cities in Friesland, the Netherlands. From Leeuwarden back to Leeuwarden again.
If you turned on the radio it was topic of conversation.
It was the first thing we, often jokingly, asked each other: “And, already in training?”, and instantly the other person would know what they were supposed to be in training for.

Even I had a mild case of the fever. A telephone conversation between me and a friend, earlier this week:

Me: “Already in training?”
He: “Hmm, not really. You know, I’m more of a long distance ice skater.”
Me: “You mean, the 200 kilometres isn’t long enough for you?”
He: “Not much of a challenge.”
Me: “And besides, it’s only one round.”
He: “Oh, but I usually do more rounds. One round isn’t really… just when you found your skating rhythm, you’re already at the finish line.”
Me: “Hmm, that’s true.”
He: “And I always ‘kluun’ from Groningen to Leeuwarden too, to warm up the muscles.”
Me: “Sure you do.”

Anyway, there were people more serious about the Elfstedentocht. Professional skaters, looking forward to this once in a lifetime skating event, were in tears last night when the news broke at a press conference.

The last Elfstedentocht was in 1997 and before that the ice only was safe enough in 1985 and 1986. This year it looked like the ice could be thick enough (minimum of 15 centimetres) to hold the expected 16,000 skaters, but unfortunately a large part of the ice was covered in snow. Snow works as an insulation and it prevents the ice from ‘growing’. So the snow had to be removed. The ice wasn’t thick enough yet to allow snow shovelling machines on the ice, so it had to be done by hand. Entire villages went on ‘their’ stretch of ice to shovel the snow to the sides. Schools volunteered their pupils for shovelling. And people from all over the country went to Friesland to do their part. The army sent 50 soldiers, who just had returned from polar training, to shovel snow. I’ve always wondered why soldiers need polar training, since most wars are fought in hotter (in more than one sense) parts of the world. But now it makes sense.

It really did unite the nation.

But the weather isn’t doing its part. It’s not freezing hard enough anymore. Temperatures are still below zero, but it isn’t cold enough to make the ice ‘grow’. So… yesterday evening the news came that it couldn’t go through. Not that a date was set yet. But we all lived in hope that it could perhaps take place this Saturday or perhaps Sunday.

If you watch the video (follow this link) you will understand the atmosphere of the whole event. It truly is magnificent. After about a minute, you’ll see the competition skaters start. All skaters have to run to the Bonkevaart (the canal where the starting point is), put on their skates and then skate the entire route, collecting a stamp in every city they skate through. Because of the amount of people who skate the Elfstedentocht, they start very early in the morning, when it is still dark (so the first hour or so they can’t even see where they are skating). First the competitive skaters start and after that the tour skaters start in groups. The later they start, the later they will arrive back in Leeuwarden, so many of them will arrive in the dark. They are only allowed to pass the finish line until precisely 12 o’clock at night. When you’re late, you won’t get a medal to prove that you’ve done the tour. Life is hard. Now I know that lots of tour skaters take breaks in bars along the route, so it’s a wonder they do even finish at all, but still it is incredibly sad when you’ve braved the cold, skated 200 kilometres, avoided freezing to death or breaking limbs, and then you arrive at the finish at 10 seconds past 12. Bad luck! Better luck next time. If there is a next time that is.

The video also shows what ‘klunen’ is. It’s rather funny to watch.

And you’ll see our Queen at the finish line of the competition to greet the winner. Even our crown prince skated the tour once. I believe it was in 1997. Brave boy.

Ah well, who knows, maybe next year we’ll have another Elfstedentocht. Or perhaps even this year. If temperatures get as low as –15 Celsius again. Don’t burn your skates yet! There’s always hope.

Klunen: in places where the ice is too unsafe to skate on, skaters have to get off the ice and stagger on their skates to a place where they can get on the ice again and continue the tour.

Fever!

…in the morning… fever all throuhough the night…

At the moment the entire Dutch population is suffering from the FEVER! The Elfstedentochtkoorts (Eleven Cities Tour Fever) to be precise. We’ve had what, three days with sub-zero temperatures, and you can’t open a newspaper, watch a TV program or turn on the radio and it is the main subject. “Will it happen this year. Is this the year that the Elfstedentocht will be held again?” The last one was held in 1997 mind you so it isn’t a happening that can be organised very often. Hence the feverish enthusiasm of people who can skate and want to skate the ‘tour of tours’ at least once in their lifetime.

For those of you who don’t know about the Elfstedentocht, it is the world’s largest and longest speed skating competition and leisure skating tour (got that from Wikipedia) and it is held in the province of Friesland. Here in the Netherlands. It is about 200 kilometres in length and takes place on frozen canals, rivers and lakes and between eleven cities in Friesland. From Leeuwarden back to Leeuwarden again. Because of the amount of idiots lunatics fanatics people (about 15,000) who put on their skates to skate the entire 200 kilometres in bitterly cold weather, risking freezing to death breaking arms, legs and whathaveyou on the bumpy icy surface, the ice has to be a minimum thickness of 15 centimetres. And that seldom happens. Which is why the last editions of this tour were in 1985, 1986 and 1997. There’s a whole generation who never experienced the happening that is the Elfstedentocht.

Because it is very unlikely that the entire route has the required 15 centimetres thickness of ice, in places where the ice isn’t thick enough (predominantly under bridges), the skaters have to get off the ice and walk on their skates to a place where it is safe to get back onto the ice again. That is called ‘klunen’. I remember that on Koninginnedag (another typical Dutch event, the celebration of the Queen’s birthday) after the 1985 elfstedentocht you could ‘klunen voor een kwartje’ (‘klunen’ for 25 cents) on the traditional Queen’s day flea market in Amsterdam. Some clever guys built a wooden bridge on the pavement and if you paid 25 cents you could put on skates and stagger to the other side of the bridge. I bet they were rich guys by the end of that day. It was an incredibly popular thing to do then.

The things one remembers…

Anyway…

Another thing some people get very excited about when we’ve had about one night of frost is the first ice skating marathon on natural ice. Where will the first one be held?!?!? Traditionally there are three rivalling places in the race for organising this marathon: Hardenberg, Nieuw-Amsterdam-Veenoord (yep, it is one village with three names) and Noordlaren.

Now, Noordlaren often win, because they are smart farmers with the right equipment to create a great, smooth ice surface. A tractor and a liquid manure tank filled with water. And then they drive around the track, spraying a miniscule layer of water every round. And they do this all night long, taking turns in driving the tractor round the track. The other villages just put a load of water on their track and then go to sleep. Which is why the dedicated people of Noordlaren have deservedly won the race for the first Marathon on natural ice this year once again. It was held last night. Noordlaren is the next village from where we live, and hubs loves to watch marathon ice skating (with the emphasis on watch), so he and a couple of friends defied the cold and went to Noordlaren.

I’ve been to watch the marathon two years ago, when it was held during the day. So I thought: ‘been there, done that’ and stayed at home to poke up the fire and make hot chocolate for when they got back.

They have a novelty Zamboni in Noordlaren:

The cameraman didn’t need a fridge to keep his lunch cold…

which is how you blow your nose when you obviously don’t have pockets for a handkerchief

Such fun.

Sunday Selections

 

Sunday Selections is hosted by Kim from Frogpondsrock to give us an opportunity to post those photos that are lurking somewhere in some folder on your computer, almost forgotten. If you have folders filled with photos waiting to be shown on your computer, you can always hop over to the rocking frog ponds and join in.

I’ve slightly broken ‘the rules’ this week, because I’ve posted on or two of these before, but since almost no one has seen them and they fitted so beautifully in my ‘moving shots’ theme this week…

MOVED

 

Luctor et emergo

Not that I've been 'luctoring' too much, but I feel like I'm emerging from non-blogworld into blogworld yet again.

Update on the Lyme situation: there is no Lyme situation anymore. Hip hip...

Update on Willem's braces-situation: he is now bracesless, hehe. Again a hip hip hurray (hooray?) feels appropriate. His jaw has healed pretty good. The two teeth are sticking out just a tiny little bit, but as the vet said: "he doesn't have to win the Miss World competition". True! Not even the Mister World, which would be anatomically more correct, although he misses some vital parts for true Misterhood.

Sorry that I've been away for a couple of weeks again, but it is a serious case of time flying. Don't you feel that the days go by far too fast? I do. There are not enough hours in a day, not enough days in a week, etc. So blogging hasn't been at the top of my to-do list.

The photography course has finished. Due to the Lyme I've missed lots of lessons, but I do feel that I almost understand how my camera works now. Have to practice a lot to fully get to grips with all possible settings. So...this afternoon there were speed skating competitions, a marathon for women and one for men, in a neighbouring village and I took my camera.

As you can see, the Netherlands are covered in snow. We haven't had this much snow since 1979 I believe. We feel that we are living IN a Christmas card. I'll be posting some more photos some day soon.

The dogs and even the horses enjoy playing in the snow. Not so sure about the cats, but even they go outside a lot so they probably like it too. As do we.

In case I don't have time to post again this week:

wishing you all a very merry Christmas and a truly wonderful and happy New Year!

Be good!