When most people think about Dutch sports they usually imagine soccer and K-1. These are very popular sports indeed and many people participate in them. It would not be an overstatement to say that Dutch people love kicking things and or people. The true passion however does not involve soccer, but skates.
Ice skating is one of those things we consider purely Dutch. Most people know Gogh and Vermeer. There are more than just a few famous Dutch painters, they are called the Dutch masters and one of their favorite topics was always skating people. As you can see in this picture, skating was a popular pastime 500 years ago. Skates in those days were made from wood and sometimes even animal bone. These days we use superlight plastics, but the skating itself has barely changed. Strangely enough figure skating and ice hockey are not popular at all. We only care about speed skating.
However even in the modern day we get a bit crazy when it starts freezing. As soon as there is ice on the rivers and lakes most schools close and all kids get extra days off to go skating (we even have a special word for this: ijsvrij “literally ice off”). The colder it gets the more fun it is. People go out and take part in long skating tours on “natural ice”. Natural ice, means not on a skating ring, but on a river or lake. Because it gets really cold there are special shops on the ice which sell warm soup, cakes and Dutch wodka. The idea is that skating drunk is even more fun than skating sober.
Every now and then it gets cold for a really long period and all rivers freeze up. This is a very rare event and when it happens there is a skating race that passes through eleven cities. This is called the eleven cities ride (guess why?) and it takes 211 kilometers. This is not a skating race for the faint of heart. Sometimes people lose toes because they freeze off. The winner becomes an instant celebrity and everyone in the whole country knows his name.
In my lifetime there have only been three eleven cities rides (1985, 1986 and 1997). Whenever it happens, the whole country goes a bit crazy. Millions of people travel to the north and spend all day standing in a field cheering the skaters. Of course it is freezing all the time, but people simply don’t care. We stay warm by dancing, eating hot peasoup and of course the always present Dutch wodka.
Because of climate change the weather is gradually getting warmer. Many people are worried if we will ever have another eleven cities ride again. Personally I think we will. We just have to be patient and wait until it freezes for a few weeks non-stop. Then we can do what Dutch people do best: Weird Stuff on Ice.