My greatest challenge: The eleven cities tour 1963
For all Dutch skaters the ultimate challenge is participating in the "Elfstedentocht" or Eleven cities tour. That was also true for me.This is a tour passing 11 cities in Friesland. The length of the tour is 200 km which has to be finished before 12 at night the same day that you start. The tour can be very hard if the ice or the weather is bad. The first opportunity I got was in 1963. This was a very cold winter. It was first freezing a lot for more than 3 weeks. The committee started to organize the Eleven cities tour but when it looked good for the tour the temperature went up and the ice was melting again. Fortunately very strong frost came back and the date for the tour was determined on the 18th of January. The 16th I went home to my parents to ask, as a poor student, for some money to participate in the Eleven cities tour. This request led to a lot of discussions because the press had announced that the ice was very bad and that it would be very cold with a lot of wind and possibly even snow as well. This was, of course, exactly the challenge I liked to have. But my parents did not see it like me. They even asked an uncle, Frans Henrichs, a sport reporter who had participated in this tour twice, to convince me not to go. But there was no way to stop me. The only person who understood this was my grandmother who put 5 guilders in my pocket in a way that my parents did not see it. This was, of course, not enough to go to Friesland by train but I went with the little money I had. So the 17th I arrived in Leeuwarden and registered for the tour and asked for a sleeping place. The family Pelikaan in Leeuwarden offered me the sleeping place for free with all the care belonging to it. They even provided me with extra clothes and food for the tour. I slept well but had to get up early because my starting time was 6.30. I was there in time. On my way I saw that the temperature was -17 degrees Celsius.
For those who are not familiar with tour skating, I should say something about our clothes. Besides normal sports clothes we were putting a newspaper under our clothes to protect us against the wind and freezing. For the same reason we protected our genitals with shammy because nothing is as bad as frozen genitals. Furthermore we were wearing ski glasses and gloves and a cap. Given the expected weather we were especially afraid of frozen body parts. Another issue to be mentioned is that we went to the start with shoes but at the start you change the shoes for skates so what do you do with the shoes? I came on very light slippers which I wanted to take with me to go back home. Besides these issues I was thinking that I needed some extra food such as grape sugar and chocolate bars and something to drink. So I had a little bag with these things with me.
For those who are not familiar with tour skating, I should say something about our clothes. Besides normal sports clothes we were putting a newspaper under our clothes to protect us against the wind and freezing. For the same reason we protected our genitals with shammy because nothing is as bad as frozen genitals. Furthermore we were wearing ski glasses and gloves and a cap. Given the expected weather we were especially afraid of frozen body parts. Another issue to be mentioned is that we went to the start with shoes but at the start you change the shoes for skates so what do you do with the shoes? I came on very light slippers which I wanted to take with me to go back home. Besides these issues I was thinking that I needed some extra food such as grape sugar and chocolate bars and something to drink. So I had a little bag with these things with me.
At 6.30 we had first to run from a hall to the start. There we looked for a place to put on the skates and then we started. It was very dark and there were many people, all trying to put their skates on as quickly as possible in order to get away. The same was true for me. I made my first stroke on the ice and got into a hole and fell on the ice. I lost my little sack with food and one of my slippers and could not see them anymore in the dark. So I came up and went on without my food and only one slipper. This was not a very nice start and gave an indication what I could expect.
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How do you skate on soft ice?
There we went into the night. We could not see much unless people along the water put the lights of their car in the direction of the canal. But most of the time it was completely dark. Some people had lights with them but they showed only a very small part of the ice while the ice was full of holes and cracks. Even worse was that the change of the weather had created a new layer of ice on top of the hard ice of the previous frost period. This second layer was rather thin and weak and so you always ran the risk to sack through the first layer of ice on the lower one.
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This could not be prevented. You had to find out how to skate on this ice. The trick is to put the weight of your body on the back of your skates so that you sack through the slim layer of ice with the back side of your skate and the front part goes up and you can glide on. If you did not do so, you could get with the points of the skates into the ice and fall. This happened of course many times to all of us. Besides that there was the risk that the person in front of you fell and you could not stop in time and fell over him with the risk to hit his/her skates. So sometimes if I saw this happen I jumped to the side in the snow. Skating in this way in the dark, I fell, or let myself fall, more than 20 times till the sun came up, around 8 o´clock. After that it went better.
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Going to the southwest we had the wind in the back and so we past with a reasonable speed several of the eleven cities. After 77km we reached Hindenloopen where the ¨Schaatsmuseum¨ (Skating museum) is. There we got, like in all cities, another stamp on our card indicating that we had passed this point.This city has a harbor for the ships going on the big lake called ¨IJselmeer¨. We had to continue on this lake with much less protection against the rather strong wind in the front.
Before starting this part I sat down for a moment with a man next to me. He was a farmer and asked me if I had put ¨udder salve¨ on my face. I did not know what that was and why I should use it. He explained me that it was used for the udders of the cows. This salve protects better against the wind and freezing because it doesn´t contains water. He offered me a part of his supply and after that we went on together with a much safer feeling. This part was rather hard but we made it till the next city Workum where we went again on a canal with a bit more protection against the wind.
Before starting this part I sat down for a moment with a man next to me. He was a farmer and asked me if I had put ¨udder salve¨ on my face. I did not know what that was and why I should use it. He explained me that it was used for the udders of the cows. This salve protects better against the wind and freezing because it doesn´t contains water. He offered me a part of his supply and after that we went on together with a much safer feeling. This part was rather hard but we made it till the next city Workum where we went again on a canal with a bit more protection against the wind.
Was I up to this challenge?
My worries about the fact that I lost my food and drinks were quickly over because along the route in every city there was plenty of food and drinks prepared for the participants without any costs. A lot of motivation was received from the spectators that were cheering the skaters. From Hindenloopen, after 77 km, we had all the time wind against us. Nevertheless I went on passing three other cities. So I had done 8 of the 11 cities. But in Harlingen the wind became much stronger and we had to change in the direction north east, exactly where the wind came from. I had decided for myself that I would never go to sit down if I was tired: I would go back to the previous city or I would go on to the next one. If one sits down completely tired, one can freeze to death eventually. So when I got in difficulties on the canal from Harlingen to Franeker I had to decide what to do. Fortunately at that moment two skaters of my level passed by and I decided that this was a chance to get to the next city. So I went behind them and that went well. Later other skaters did the same while the two leaders dropped out of the group. However they had given me enough strength to go ahead of the group when we arrived in Franeker.
Here a surprise was expecting us. The organizing committee together with the police had decided that it was too risky to allow people to continue skating in the dark to the 10th and 11th city after 5 o´clock in the afternoon. The wind had increased and had blown the snow over the ice in the northern part of the tour. Partially it was not possible to skate anymore and they were afraid that people would get lost and that accidents would occur. So arriving in Franeker the police told us that we were not allowed to go on. My group was the first one to be stopped in Franeker at 5 o´clock. Of course we complained a lot because we wanted to continue this challenge and we did not know at that moment how bad the situation was further on. This decision of the organizing committee and the police was justified as the story of Kees Bovée shows, one of the 69 skaters who finished the tour in time
Here ended my first eleven city tour. I had to go the train on one slipper and one sock and with all the new arrivals in Franeker we went back to Leeuwarden in the train. To be honest I must say that I was not so disappointed about this end because so far it had been quite a hard test for me and the others and I thought that I did rather well. Afterwards it became clear that it was a right decision because, as can be seen from the picture below, after Franeker it was not possibility any more to skate normally. In an other part I will decribe the experiences of skaters that were a bit earlier and were allowed to continue till the finish.
Here ended my first eleven city tour. I had to go the train on one slipper and one sock and with all the new arrivals in Franeker we went back to Leeuwarden in the train. To be honest I must say that I was not so disappointed about this end because so far it had been quite a hard test for me and the others and I thought that I did rather well. Afterwards it became clear that it was a right decision because, as can be seen from the picture below, after Franeker it was not possibility any more to skate normally. In an other part I will decribe the experiences of skaters that were a bit earlier and were allowed to continue till the finish.
I went back to the family Pelikaan where I had stayed the last night and told my story. They had followed the tour on the TV and were surprised that I had come so far. They gave me a lot to eat and to drink, especially Dutch jenever to warm up, they said. The consequence was that later going up the stairs I did not know how to go through a curve in the stairs. Was this because I was too tired or due to the Jenever? This was hard to decide for me at that time. Anyway, I managed to get up the stairs and I slept well. The next day I went back with the train to Amsterdam with a lot of participants of this tour. We exchanged our stories in a very good atmosphere. I was of course complaining very much that the police had stopped me because I could have finished the tour otherwise. But that year only 69 of the 10.000 participants finished the tour on time. So I was in good company.
My parents were very happy to see me again especially because I was in good health. I was already hoping for a second opportunity. However that opportunity came only many years later.
Stories of participants in the same and other editions of the Eleven cities tour can be found in the website:
http://www.elfstedensite.nl/
The texts are in Dutch but a translation can be obtained using Google translator.
My parents were very happy to see me again especially because I was in good health. I was already hoping for a second opportunity. However that opportunity came only many years later.
Stories of participants in the same and other editions of the Eleven cities tour can be found in the website:
http://www.elfstedensite.nl/
The texts are in Dutch but a translation can be obtained using Google translator.