Speedskating on nature ice.....
We skated the first weeks in 2009 fon real nature ice!!! We have been waiting for about 12 years to skate official organised icetours again!
I made some 4 or 5 icetours of 50-70km each tour these days on the canals near Rotterdam. Accompanied by some 200.000-400.000 others, everywhere in Holland.
fFor some weeks that special Dutch winter athmosphere was back again! Warming up in an ice café with its landing along the frozen canal! Drinking hot choco and beer, and eating Unox winter sausages of course.

Below you find some gps-maps for the last tours I made.
You also can read tour tales here.

10-1-2009 Haastrecht Vlist 52km

Grotere kaart weergeven

9-1-2009 Nieuwkoop 60 km.

Grotere kaart weergeven

8-1-2008 Westlandtocht 60km.

Grotere kaart weergeven

6-1-2009 Alblasser Molentocht 73 km.

Grotere kaart weergeven

31-12-2008 Delft/Abtswoude 20km

Grotere kaart weergeven

But people were too impatient for the thin ice. It cracked and flooded under the load of so many skaters. I had to complete the last kilometers on waving and collapsing ice, but managed to return to my starting point without getting wet. Wonderous! We didn't have any nature ice for so long!!

Now it's waiting again, and keeping your condition ok on a roofed rink.
If you want to bow your back and knees on the indoor ice oval of the "Uithof" rink in The Hague? Well, come on and join all those icethirsty people skating there in the evenings. Or wait for plenty of skating space directly after breakfast...

• What's new here ?.
  I am always interested in people willing to help translating more of my ice tales. I have no time to finish the job in the few hours I got left between my business and my wife.....
  Every hot (read: cold) moment when it looks like winter to come, the site's meteorologist Cees van Zwieten discusses the skate and wheather forecasts on the site in his Winterbulletins. However, you must understand dutch for it!
  Now the whole site is finished renovating and "on the air" again.
  So for english speaking fanatics, read here the whole story on nature ice speedskating!

  I am working hard to translate more of my ice tales. But the job must be done in the few hours left between business and family.....
  

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• Skate tour tales.
  I tried to catch the athmosphere of many tours I skated in a skate tale.
  

  

  Read it and you'll know about the clue before you start an outdoor tour. Or you can still taste the athmosphere long after you have finished you mission. However, there are still many stories in Dutch to translate. If anybody offers to do a bit of the job, please contact me...

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• Winter forecast.
  Winter is over again in Holland. With even some nature ice ..
  Cees van Zwieten, this site's meteorologist, gives his comments on the European, American and German forecast models in his Winter Bulletins. They are quite up to date when there's a frosty period. However, you need to understand Dutch to read them...

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• Ice fun . . . . .
  Much stuff here for all fanatics on blades.

  Try to discover the secret of this amazing sport, as others did before you.
  Enjoy the inspiration in the ice poems, but take care of the dangers on ice. And the guest book of course. Read the stuff from fellow skaters and write about your own experiences.

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• Skating trails on the web.
  Why should you look for other sites when you already found these pages? But if you really feel the need to be untrue, here are some links to other places about skating.
  The links won't pretend to be complete. I like skating more than updating links. There are much better places for that on the web......

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