We've had it cold here the past couple of days. There has in fact been codes orange and red in two provinces. Public transport, schools and other things haver been closed. Generally there would not have been so many closures with just snow, but what we have had is called ijzel --rain the freezes immediately on the ground or plants. It is a seriously dangerous condition to be sure...but ya gotta have something to do when you can't go to school or work and there is no ice on the canals yet. What then? Skating of course-- the sidewalks and streets have a very thin layer of ice on them. There have been many slippings and broken bones lately, but if you know what you are doing, then there is fun to be had. Sydney asked if anyone made "slides"...we took that a step further here. Have a look at these vids of what folks are doing in the towns and villages: Folks are having fun, but what they are REALLY waiting...and HOPING for is for it to become cold enough to freeze the big waters.... This final vid shows how sweet it can be. The vid was shot in a place called Giethoorn back in 2012 0r '13 I believe. Giethoorn is a small village here that has a small bit of paths but the streets there are water. You get around it on boats. It is a nice place to visit in the summer...sort of like a very small Venice, as it were. Hope that you guys will enjoy the scenes here.
oy vey. Freezing rain is not normal here. other parts of the country maybe, but not normal for us. It shuts everything down everywhere. I just want it to melt and warm back up. Today is beautiful. I went and picked my mom up and we went to Warthers Museum in New Philadelphia, Ohio ( if you ever get to Ohio.. check this one out. It is awesome) had them sharpen our Warthers knives and I even splurged on a few new ones for my drawer... Wall to wall sunshine and 44f today. No ice.
Oh my. Thanks for sharing. It's always interesting to see how others are coping with the cold weather.
Interesting Sjoerd! Thanks for the videos. A town where the streets are canals....it boggles the mind!
Thanks for your comments, CAROLYN. I am so pleased that you liked the posting, HANK. ECLECTIC--I greatly enjoying reading about how things are in other countries also. Even for here this skating on a thin layer of ice on streets and sidewalks is not a usual thing. The Friesians have coined a new word for it--straatsen. it is a combination of the two words, straat = street and schaatsen = to skate....so then, skating on the street. Heh,heh,heh CAYUGA--I know it does. The interesting thing is that a few hundred years ago our cities and towns had many more canals in them, my town included. They were mostly filled-in with sand and earth and then paved with bricks and later asphalted. There were so many streets filled with water for commercial reasons. The goods to be sold or exported came in from the countryside in country canals on special types of shallow boats. They were then navigated to where the goods or stock would be sold, unloaded and then they would pole back out to their acres. Also the large ships that came in from afar would sail into the harbour and sometimes a short ways into the city...but more commonly the things were offloaded onto the quay or onto small, narrow both and taken to other parts of the city. Cities then had sections where things were made and/or sold...and it is reflected in the street names to this day. Names like koemarkt, bierkade kaashaven...etc. Visitors to our city and other cities walk upon streets that a few hundred years ago were full of water and they do not even know it unless they have a guide. Thanks DONNA--I can imagine that those areas would be interesting to you. The folks that come and visit us get taken around to see the sites from a perspective that most tourists never do. Site-seeing with a local is always a richer experience than with a tour. I know this myself...just take my recent trip to Norway. The graciousness of Droopy and family in terms of friendship, food and showing us around really did make our trip extra special and I knew how darn lucky I was to have such a friend. So....if you and your man ever come over this way, and you want us to show you around, let me know.
I enjoyed the videos, Sjoerd. So different from where I live though we do have a pond that is skated on when frozen. I wished I was able to take a tour with you and see your beautiful country. The main winter sports here are snowmobiling, snow boarding and Ice fishing.
I want to go to Giethoorn next summer! If I can remember the name and why I want to go there... Lovely videos. They bring back memories. We also used to skate on the roads. We didn't have a pond near by, and the roads weren't salted and sanded back then. The hard snow was perfect for skating. We've also felt the cold. We had -15°C or 5°F the other day, eight days after we were the warmest place in the country with 16°C or 60°F. We're still on the blue side, but hovering around the zero-mark or 32°F. Stay warm!
Ohhhhhh, 2OF--I can remember how cold it can get there in Idaho.You are right there is great different between here and there...the mountains alone--we have none. hahaha. we have dikes though. It would be nice to show you around should you come over this way. DROOPY--Those are some serious temps. Cor...-15ºC! I wish that it would freeze here so that I could treat my bees. Glad you liked the vids--I thought that they might be familiar to you. We'll go to Giethoorn for sure next visit. It is touristy a bit...but a place is touristy for a reason. It is quite lovely there. One can rent a boat and travel through the canals in the dorp; but, what is move fun is to take a guided tour on a boat. There is a guy there that is absolutely hilarious to go with. Really apart. He is so animated and crazy. There is an old black and white film that plays in the village. You ought to take a look if you can find one on youtube with Norwegian or English under-titles. Here is the Dutch version: It is called "Fanfare".
