Canal ice helps Dutch rediscover national identity | Hacker News Reader

Canal ice helps Dutch rediscover national identity

iht.com

15 pointsgibsonf116 comments

I grew up in Maine and have fond memories of skating on the ponds and lakes. We used to build bonfires in the evenings out of old tires and skate around in the warmth and light. I suppose if we tried it these days we would have the EPA, FBI, and DHS after us.

In high school we graduated to cars. It was great fun to go as fast as we could, cut the steering wheel, hit the brakes, and go spinning down the lake. (Don't try this at home. We were trained professionals. Not to mention the effect of global warming on the thickness of the ice.)

This story's hilarious:

"Hundreds of thousands of skaters, their cheeks as red as apples in the freezing temperatures, took to the ice, and hospital wards were filled with dozens of people with fractured arms, sprained ankles and broken legs."

Will there be another cold snap to freeze the canals of the Eleven Cities Tour? "Not in the coming weeks," Geurts said. "At the earliest, in February."

I'm crossing my fingers. During this last freeze I was at home with my sick girlfriend, watching all the news reports of people skating on the big canals. Here in Amsterdam there wasn't enough ice to skate on the canals, so I'd have to head north which wouldn't have been very nice :(

Would have been nice to see all the Dutchies out in skates, everyone seemed so happy about it. Plus, this poor Californian has never skated on natural ice!

Any other hackers in Holland?

sure! where you at? I'm in Arnhem working in Amsterdam.

Ahh, I was actually just in Arnhem a few weeks ago, cute little town.

I'm living in A'dam finishing up a Masters (why did I go back to school?!), then I have to decide if I'm going to get involved in another IT project or try and save the world.

I'm still waiting till "It giet oan"...

I'm in Limburg for the next couple weeks.

Present! :) Utrecht it is. Don't know why this is on the main page though.

I used to spend my winter holidays in northern germany near bremen as a kid and I loved skating on the river... It's a completely different feeling from skating in a ice skating rink...

Getting subtler, are we, gibsonf1?

I actually found this very interesting as a peek into Dutch culture as well.

... water pollution and ... have made [canal freezing] so rare...

What mechanism does water pollution have in freezing point depression? Surely they don't have enough dissolved solids to make a significant difference. A quick googling didn't reveal an easy answer. Perhaps this is "hacker knowledge".

I've enjoyed the "cold" (by which I mean normal) winter weather. These past few days have reminded me of Minnesota and brought back fond memories.

With an influx of immigrants, the country has been struggling to maintain what it considers its Dutch soul, and Gustafsson was one of many here who thought the skating experience enabled the Dutch to reconnect with their identity. "There were only Dutch people on the ice," he said. "I saw no people of Arab descent."

OMG you nazi! How dare you question the goodness of flooding your country with people who have nothing in common with you.

That makes two outrageous comments.

Yeah, if we get too many people different from us in a confined space it will make it harder to inbreed with our cousins and the like.

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