Winter in Holland

Nina and I are slowly recovering from this crazy flu. She still ‘runs’ on anti-biotics, I have had them for 2 months and am off it now…. So we took the Jeep out into the countryside to at least SEE some of the skating fun for ourselves, even though I couldn’t particiapte this time. May have to wait another 12 years again before the canals freeze over?

Pretty strange though, what with harsh winters being a thing of the past. When I was young we would skate for MONTHS each year! All canals would be frozen over for 2 or 3 months at least, the ice rinks would be open and skating on music with lights in the evening was a daily thing to do.

Today over 50% of the kids can’t even skate and an entire generation had NEVER seen ICE on the canals !! When you get older you start living in the past I think….. and forget that things have changed forever. What we saw today would be unthinkable 40 years ago…. having to FIND skaters, seeing more people on the ice on foot than on skates, seeing only an occasional ‘stayer’ dash past all the debutants!

It sadened me in a way. The memories I have of winters are quite different. I now understand what my mother felt 30 years ago. HER winters were double harsh again compared to mine. Oh well…… at least we saw it, we were out of the house for a bit and are now getting back to work finally this week ! See our trip here.