DOORN, The Netherlands (AP) – A deep winter freeze hitting the Netherlands is reviving the national obsession with skating on frozen canals.
Predicting that temperatures below zero will last longer than a week, ice fever swept the country Tuesday and gave a welcome respite from the bad coronavirus news, while also creating a challenge for authorities to break the rules for social try to maintain distance.
People across the country were sniffing through the attic and dusting off long unused skaters, while businesses grinding skate blades reported boom times.
Skating is a national winter passion in the Netherlands, with the country’s spandex-clad elite athletes dominating the Winter Olympics in recent years. Amateurs of all ages eagerly await the Arctic conditions that allow them to go to the country’s extensive network of canals and waterways.
But with the country in a strict closure of the coronavirus, the prospect of a long-distance skating competition being presented in the northern province of Friesland for the first time since 1997 is remote at best.
The association that organizes the 11 City Tour over frozen canals and lakes said in January that according to current coronavirus measures, it is not possible to organize the almost mythical event. Since then, the authorities have not relaxed the measures, except that they are allowing primary school pupils back into classrooms this week.
The chairman of the association on Tuesday poured more cold water on the hopes of people and remarked just what production the race normally involves.
“We are talking about a tour with 1-1.5 million spectators, 25,000 participants, thousands of volunteers and half of the Netherlands on the way,” Wiebe Wieling told national broadcaster NOS. “Every right-thinking person will realize that such a thing is not possible” in the midst of the pandemic.
Prime Minister Mark Rutte entered the debate on Monday night, saying skating authorities could consider allowing racing on natural ice if the top 120 racers get into a coronavirus bubble. But he also said that it is not a question of setting up an event with a large number of spectators, even if it is outside.
Rutte nevertheless said that the Dutch must take advantage of the conditions while they are still expensive.
“Enjoy this beautiful weather and the ice,” Rutte said. “But do it within the COVID-19 rules.”
Dutch media reported that some hardy souls on Tuesday in parts of the Netherlands ventured to skate on thin ice, but for now, temporary ice tracks were the safest place to put on your skates.
Local school children visited the skating club in Doorn, 65 kilometers southeast of Amsterdam, which created its course by spraying water on an inline skating rink and building an even ice surface by dragging a Persian rug around it.
Channels are expected to be frozen solid enough later this week for people to skate. Authorities in Amsterdam have closed locks and banned boats on parts of the city’s city canal ring listed on the World Heritage Site to give them a better chance of freezing over.
However, the municipality has also warned skaters to stick to social distance and other coronavirus restrictions.
“The coronavirus rules for public places also apply to the ice,” City Hall said.
It was not just skate lovers who were preparing for the big cold shiver.
A zoo in the middle of the Netherlands moved 15 penguins indoors and out of the cold on Tuesday. Unlike their Antarctic cousins, the black-footed penguins come from South Africa and Namibia and are not used to such icy conditions, Burgers’ Zoo said.
The freezing conditions also created natural ice sculptures in a marina in the town of Monnikendam, just north of Amsterdam, on Lake Markermeer, with boats moored there in swirling sheets of ice.
Lines of windswept ice mirrors hung on boat rails and ropes, and ice covered a set of children’s swings and trees near the edge of the snow-covered frozen waters of the lake.
“We live in the most beautiful painting of the 17th century,” Rutte said.
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Corder reported from The Hague, The Netherlands.