With my friends to the "Alternatieve Elfstedentocht 1993"
My skating experience at the Weissensee was so positive that I tried to convince my skating friends to go there too. In 1993 I convinced them. Unfortunately that year I was very busy and had little time to skate and organize the trip but my Austrian wife, Irmtraud, organized for us a nice chalet along the lake. We were with 9 skaters. We were prepared for everything because our group consisted of two doctors, two psychiatrist, two economists, one jurist, one statistician and a historian but the question was now if we could also skate 200km? All of us had at least once skated a real “Elfstedentocht” but now we were some years older, most of us were getting close 50 years old at that time. Several of us saw this as the opportunity to realize a new record for themselves over 200km. Hein who had completed several times the Elfstedentocht in the Netherlands on skates and on his bike, was prepared for it extremely well. He wanted to prevent that he had to stop during the tour and would lose the connection with his skating group. So he took with him a pitcher with a hose which he put under his closes in such a way that he could drink whenever he needed it and did not have to stop for this. The others were less fanatic but all were keen to make a good time except me because I knew that I had not trained enough and I had done this already two years before.
The first day after arrival we went for a training as a group. Most of us are on the photo below.
The first day after arrival we went for a training as a group. Most of us are on the photo below.
The next day was the day of the tour. We all started at the same time at 7 o´clock in the morning. Soon the sun came up and it became a beautiful day. But these events are not without accidents. Arie cut during skating with his skate in his own leg and the cut was so big that he had to be treated by a doctor who recommended him not to continue. I had a lot of experience with falling during 200km tours but in this case I fell in such a bad way that I got a cut in the skin of my head (no helmet) which had to be stitched and the advice was to stop as well. So we both returned to the balcony of our chalet and were sitting in the sun for the rest of the day waiting for the other to come back.
On the way back I went along a petrol station where they had a book stand. There I found the book “Die klavierspielerin” of the Austrian Nobel prize winner for literature Elfriede Jelinek. This book was recommended to me by one of my skating friends. When I told him that I found the book at the petrol station he was impressed by the cultural level of the Austrian till I told him that the book was placed in the category of erotic literature.
While reading on the balcony my friends did their best on the ice. The first that returned was indeed Hein after 7 hours and 30 minutes. After that at regular distances all came back. Everybody was very enthusiastic about this fantastic skating day and most of them were delighted that they had improved their best time over 200km. When all were back, we had a typical Austria goulash prepared by Irmtraud.
The next day we all went back in train with very nice memories of this trip. The victims of this tour were already thinking about another visit to the Weissensee. The others were discussing “how fit one can remain even when one gets older”. We were joking that we probably would go with our racing bike in a home for the elderly..
On the way back I went along a petrol station where they had a book stand. There I found the book “Die klavierspielerin” of the Austrian Nobel prize winner for literature Elfriede Jelinek. This book was recommended to me by one of my skating friends. When I told him that I found the book at the petrol station he was impressed by the cultural level of the Austrian till I told him that the book was placed in the category of erotic literature.
While reading on the balcony my friends did their best on the ice. The first that returned was indeed Hein after 7 hours and 30 minutes. After that at regular distances all came back. Everybody was very enthusiastic about this fantastic skating day and most of them were delighted that they had improved their best time over 200km. When all were back, we had a typical Austria goulash prepared by Irmtraud.
The next day we all went back in train with very nice memories of this trip. The victims of this tour were already thinking about another visit to the Weissensee. The others were discussing “how fit one can remain even when one gets older”. We were joking that we probably would go with our racing bike in a home for the elderly..