Why are so many Dutchmen fanatic skaters?
The delta of the river Rhine is situated in The Netherlands and a large part of the country is under the sea level and so there are many rivers, lakes. In the 17th century many canals were digged to speed up the transport of people and goods between the major towns. But what makes this unique is that in the Netherlands the winters are often cold enough that the water in the lakes and canals get frozen. The combination of these two features allowed the Dutch people to go skating on the ice in the lakes and canals.
The Dutch used this opportunity to go skating already a long time ago as the painters through the centuries show. This activity has been developed through the centuries to such a popular entertainment that at such occasions many thousands of people of different ages go on the ice to skate and enjoy the special atmosphere of this activity.
The Dutch used this opportunity to go skating already a long time ago as the painters through the centuries show. This activity has been developed through the centuries to such a popular entertainment that at such occasions many thousands of people of different ages go on the ice to skate and enjoy the special atmosphere of this activity.
Looking at the video below you probably can imagine why so many Dutch people are fanatic skaters.If you understand Dutch you can even hear it. The camera man, skating with the group, says "What a fantastic ice. What an experience the first day on natural Ice". The ice is indeed extremely smooth and therefore they can skate fast without much effort. This gives a fantastic feeling. It is of course not always so as you will see in several other stories but it happens when the water freezes while there is no wind and it is not snowing. This feeling one canalso get in a skating rink just after the ice has been prepared or in sports resorts like Davos where they can create very good ice. In these cases you can get the impression that you can fly. Skating in a group of skaters of the same level reinforces this feeling, because it is much easier to skate in a group, especially if others are in the lead. After a sufficiently long tour, which was not too hard, one will have a very pleasant feeling like marathon runners also can get.
If you are not yet sure how nice an experience it is to skate on the Dutch canals and lakes, look at some of the 100 best pictures of Lex van Buuren