ICE!

As I mentioned in an earlier post, Dutch people like skating, especially like skating really long ways in the cold, and especially, especially like the Elfstedentocht.  Well, things are getting pretty exciting around here.  It has been really cold.  Really, really cold for the Netherlands.  Which has been freezing stuff.  A lot.  And people are getting hopeful.

On Sunday, the Elfstedentocht committee had a special meeting.
This is the first special meeting that they have had in 15 years.
Normally they meet in the summer to have discussions, approve members, make rules, etc.  (You are only eligible to skate in the race after your second year of membership--which is a really great way to keep memberships up after years of no race.  Apparently loads of membership applications have been flooding in this week but none of those folks will get to participate.)  They only have special meetings in the winter when they are planning to measure the ice to make sure that they don't accidentally drown all of the racers.  So the fact that they are having a meeting at all is pretty, pretty exciting.

Then on Monday, they had a press conference.  They didn't know what would happen, they said.  They would have another press conference on Wednesday.  If the race happened, it would probably happen over the weekend but they didn't know.  Everybody has been going hysterical ever since.

On Monday, the Elfstedentocht committee also set up a Twitter account.  (They never had one before.  Nothing to announce)  If you want to follow them, their account is @11stvereniging.  They have been up for three days and have 13,402 followers (including me) .  Pretty quick work, if you ask me.
Updated to add:  In the last 10 minutes, they are up to 13,689 followers.

On Monday, there was also a Facebook post by Sabaï Doodkorte.  Sabaï  is in charge of international students at EUR and is the one who organized the Pannenkoekenboot trip last year, among other things.  It sounds like, if they have the race, they might try to get some kind of group from the University together to go see the race.  That could be pretty fun.

I asked a colleague about the race but he said that he did not think that it would occur.  I hope that he is wrong.  This is the weather forecast for Leeuwarden, the start and finish point for the race.  It seems hopeful, doesn't it?

I looked it up and the train tickets to go to Leeuwarden would be about $40.  The train trip itself is around 3 hours long, one way, and includes between 2 and 4 transfers, depending on which route you take.  That however, is based on the normal train schedule.  I don't know how the transport system troubles will affect this.  (Whatdoyaknow, I am talking myself out of this trip as I type.)  Also, presumably, the trains will be absolutely jam packed with people going up to see the race.  So, maybe I will go.  It could be fun.  It could be an absolute disaster.  If I can figure out where the race ends (I have no plans on being at the start of the race, which I believe is at 5am) or where it passes by, so that I don't end up just aimlessly wandering around the Friesian countryside, it might be worth it.

The Dutch are so excited about the ice and the race that they can barely stand it.  There are forged (?) letters from the Elfstadentocht committee going around saying that the race will be run on Monday.  And everyone is trying to buy skates.  Skate manufacturers and shops are getting pretty excited and apparently with reason.  Marktplaats.nl is kind of the Dutch equivalent of Craig's List, where people sell mostly second-hand stuff.  According to nu.nl, in the first three weeks of January of this year, there were 16,277 searches for skates on the marktplaats.nl website.  In the fourth week, it shot up to 174,450.  These Dutchies take their ice skating seriously.

I will keep you updated on the Elfstedentocht progress.  In the mean time, here are some pictures of Dutch people skating on canals from a Dutch news service nu.nl.  Click here if you want to see some utterly adorable children being Dutch.