Is this our last tour of 200km ?
In 2005 more than 10 years after our last 200km some of us, Arie and Willem and I decided once more to try to skate a tour of 200km. So we prepared ourselves as usual on the artificial tracks in Amsterdam, Den Haag and Breda and in the beginning of 2006 we went together with my wife , Irmtraud, to the Weissensee. Of course, I had to make an agreement with Irmtraud again concerning a cultural activity in Austria for compensation. This time this was Salzburg.
After arrival in our nice hotel we made a short trip to the ice and saw the copy of the famous bridge of Barthlehiem here on the Weissensee. Trying out the ice we also saw that it was quite bad. There had been several tours and races before using the same routes on the ice. We also saw several people with injuries because of falls on the ice arriving at the dinner in the evening. So I decided to skate very little before skating the tour. It was all the time beautiful weather also at the day of the tour. With hundreds of Dutch men women we started the tour at 7 a.m. The video gives an impression of people training and participating in the tour. We skate, of course, slower that the marathon skaters in the races. We also enjoyed the skating but we had to be careful not to fall.
After arrival in our nice hotel we made a short trip to the ice and saw the copy of the famous bridge of Barthlehiem here on the Weissensee. Trying out the ice we also saw that it was quite bad. There had been several tours and races before using the same routes on the ice. We also saw several people with injuries because of falls on the ice arriving at the dinner in the evening. So I decided to skate very little before skating the tour. It was all the time beautiful weather also at the day of the tour. With hundreds of Dutch men women we started the tour at 7 a.m. The video gives an impression of people training and participating in the tour. We skate, of course, slower that the marathon skaters in the races. We also enjoyed the skating but we had to be careful not to fall.
It was indeed difficult to avoid falling because of the holes and cracks in the ice that were at some places quite large. Already in the first round I fell once but not too bad, so I continued. The second round I fell again although I tried to be careful. In the third round I again could not escape to fall. Then I thought “if I fall once more I will finish the 100 km and go to sit with Irmtraud in the sun. I don´t want to get a serious injury. I have already done my 200 km tours in the past. I am now 63 years it is time to go with pension with respect to these activities. We can also enjoy the day on a terrace in the sun.” Of course I fell again and so I did what I planned to do. I enjoyed the nice atmosphere from a terrace. It gave me also the time to see how beautiful the nature was at that day. We saw the snow crystals at the branches of the plants as they were photographed by our friend Egbert Lambers.Arie and Willem went on. Arie had relatively little problems and finished when there was still light. Willem had more difficulties and at some time we became worried about him but fortunately he come also to our dinner table although he was very tired. There we discussed the very relevant question: “Why are we doing this?” Arie suggested: “After doing it we think better about ourselves than before.” This is probably the correct answer. Even I can say that I had this feeling although I did not do the whole tour but only 100km.
The next day we went as planned to Salzburg and experienced in this Baroque town, the place of birth of Mozart, some serious classical music in one of the many beautiful churches and some tourist music of Mozart.
After having written these different stories about our experiences at the Weissensee I get the feeling that I still want to go once more to the Weissensee to skate with my friends even though I am again 10 years older. I still like to skate there and enjoy the ambiance. Let us see may be later I have to add another section about a new trip to the Weissensee combined of course with a cultural activity. Irmtraud suggested already after the next visit at the Weissensee to go to München.
The next day we went as planned to Salzburg and experienced in this Baroque town, the place of birth of Mozart, some serious classical music in one of the many beautiful churches and some tourist music of Mozart.
After having written these different stories about our experiences at the Weissensee I get the feeling that I still want to go once more to the Weissensee to skate with my friends even though I am again 10 years older. I still like to skate there and enjoy the ambiance. Let us see may be later I have to add another section about a new trip to the Weissensee combined of course with a cultural activity. Irmtraud suggested already after the next visit at the Weissensee to go to München.