In Dutch the term used to describe these frozen lakes, ponds, river, etc is "natuurijs" (natural ice) and skating on it is a bit of a national obsession. For the first time in 13 years the Dutch Natuurijs championship was held on the frozen Oostvaardersplassen lake near Lelystad. Up until last week there was still a possibility that the Elfstedentocht (Eleven Cities Tour), a hugely popular skating event which takes place in Frieslan, may be held for the first time since 1997 but the warmer weather was is predicted for next week may well have put an end to those hopes.
The big freeze also led to large traffic jams in the parts of the country where large skating events were held. Around 15000 people were estimated to have visited the De Biesbosch National Park near Dordrecht leading to traffic chaos and concerns that the ice would not be up to handling so many people on it. Skating shops all over the Netherlands reported record sales as people flocked to snap up skates and sledges.
In Amsterdam it was possible to skate on the Keizersgracht for the first time in 12 years. A few weeks ago there were some complaints when an inexperienced captain took his boat down the canal, breaking up the ice as he did so. However, the latest cold spell led to thick ice reforming and this morning around 15 hardy skaters made their way onto the frozen canal. They only managed around an hour though as then the local police moved in to remove them due to concerns over safety.
The fortress island of Pampus, which lies in the IJmeer lake just off the coast from Amsterdam, is currently totally surrounded by ice which meant that the 2 officials that live on the island had been stranded for 10 days and were unable to use their boat to return to the mainland for the fuel needed to run the generator which supplies their electricity. And so, yesterday morning, they (along with their dog) decided to walk the 3km across the frozen IJmeer to the nearest town of Muiden. Along the way they came across patches where the ice was pretty thin but managed to get safely across. They also took regular measurements of the ice thickness using a drill and found that the average thickness was around 6cm. After some hot food and drinks and a night's accomodation in Muiden they were able to return to their island home across the ice this morning.
However, this afternoon the ice had started to melt and 10 ice-walkers (again with a dog) who had made the trip from Muiden to Pampus in the morning were unable to make the return journey due to large holes appeared in the ice. Eventually they had to be rescued by a police helicopter which had to make 4 trips in total in order to bring everyone to safety.
Of course, a downside to all this skating are all the resulting injuries. Hospitals all over the country have been inundated with skaters with broken bones (especially wrists) and sprains from falls. One of these unfortunates was Eijmert van Middelkoop, the Dutch Minister for Defence who managed to break his wrist.
According to the weather forecasters the thaw is due to begin next week and so this weekend would probably be the last chance we would have for a while to experience this phenomenom for ourselves. I was a regular visitor to the ice-rink at Billingham Forum when I was young and can skate reasonably well but Luz is hopeless at it and Matthew still too young. Plus we don't have any ice-skates anyway (although I did see a nice pair in the local 2nd-hand shop which I wished I'd now bought, along with a nice little sledge for Matthew) so would just have to walk (or at least try to) along the ice instead.
Very close to where we live is a canal, the Jan Gijzekade, which runs through the middle of Haarlem-Noord from the river Spaarne past the Haarlem FC Stadion and the Schoterbos park to the Delftlaan. Normally it's a pleasant looking canal lined with boats and inhabited by large groups of ducks and geese. At the moment it's frozen solid apart from a few small patches of water into which the local waterfowl have crowded. The rest of the canal surface was covered in humans, from the surrounding houses, some skating, some (children mainly) sledging or getting pulled along on plastic chairs and some (like us) just walking.
It was with some trepidation that we first stepped onto the frozen canal. Even though the ice looked thick enough in most places there were still a few patches where the ice looked thinner or where there was some evidence of holes or cracks, especially surrounding the boats that lined the canal or underneath the bridges. Luckily the position we had chosen to enter the frozen waterway held our weight without any problem and this made us relax somewhat. Walking on the ice was not too difficult for myself and Luz as we had shoes with a good grip but Matthew found it extremely problematic to walk in his wellies due to their lack of grip and so Luz had to return home to get another pair of shoes for him.
When she returned, and Matthew was able to walk a lot easier, we took a walk down to the far end of the canal at the point where the main road crosses. Here there was a sizeable piece of water which separated the main part of the ice from a smaller part upon which were a large number of waterfowl but no people. The reason for this soon became clear when we attempted to walk on it. The ice here was a lot thinner and there were cracks clearly visible (and audible) when we ventured too far from the edge of the canal. Needless to say we soon cut short our exploration of this section!
By this time Matthew had had enough and wanted to return home and once they were gone I took the opportunity to explore further. Across the main road the canal continued (having flowed through a small tunnel underneath the bridge), past the Haarlem FC stadium on the left and then alongside the Schoterbos park, which produced a very scenic view. Here is was quite a bit busier than on the other section and there were also more skaters present which meant I had to keep my eyes open in case I got flattened by one. I even came across a group of small boys dragging an old Christmas tree along behind them for some reason.Once I'd had enough of walking on the frozen canal I decided to try something a bit different - walking on the frozen duck pond in the park. When I arrived there there was no-one else on the surface so I was unsure if it was actually safe to walk on or not. It certainly looked thick enough but it was with some apprehension that I stepped onto it. Luckily it held OK and I was able to easily walk across to the other side. Shortly afterwards a group of girls also arrived and stepped onto the surface, as a group, at a different section of the pond. Although individually they were a lot smaller than me together they would have weighed quite a bit more. Therefore, when they were about halfway between the edge and a small island where the birds who usually used the surface of the pond lived, there was a loud crack which resulted in a loud scream from the girls and a rapid exit onto more solid ground.
Next I visited the Hekslootpolder, a wetland nature reserve between Haarlem and Spaarndam which also runs alongside the River Spaarne (into which the Jan Gijzekade canal enters at the southern edge of the reserve). Here there are many small canals and water-filled ditches which were also frozen solid. The amount of people here was a lot smaller than on the main canal but the more natural setting meant that there were a few more experienced "natuurijs" skaters here than there.
Also at the southern part of the Hekslootpolder is a small island containing allotments (mostly used by the inhabitants of the houseboats which are berthed along the side of the Spaarne here). I was able to walk all the way around it along the frozen canal, which I had totally to myself. As I said at the begining of this entry the Spaarne was also frozen over and I was quite tempted to try to walk on it and even cross over the the Waarderpolder on the other side. But the ice didn't look anywhere near as thick as it was on the canal and I didn't want to risk it.
