Day 241 – February 2, 2012 – Icy National Superhighways…

Number of days in Amsterdam – 241

Number of days without a bike theft – 237

Days since it last rained – 3

Due to the ongoing frigid weather, the Kitten and I have entered full-blown hibernation mode. Mama leaves for work and we don’t leave the house. In fact, Kitten’s only left the house once this week to go to the Consultatie Bureau (which probably has her opposed to going anywhere for a while, if going outside means they stick you with needles).

But much of the city is actually abuzz with excitement, because the cold is predicted to last for a while, meaning the canals may freeze solid.

And while that may sound like a horrible thing, it seems to actually only be bad for the tour boat operators, because everyone else is looking forward to skating on them.

In times of extreme cold, which is rarer and rarer, the canals become a pedestrian highway – or rather an ice skating highway. And people here, in one of the countries that invented the sport of speed skating (Hans Brinker anyone) are seemingly stoked.

There is also talk of the Elfstedentocht happening this year. The Elfstedentocht – “Eleven Cities Tour” – is a 200km speed skating race that takes place in the northern province of Frisia, where participants race on frozen canals from city to city. It only happens in winters when the ice on the canals is 15cm thick for the entire course, and it looks like that will happen this year (the last one was in 1997).

Personally, it’s going to take a lot of assurances to get me to set foot on that ice. The canals are quite dirty, and while this is entirely hearsay (anyone in the know – feel free to weigh in), as I understand it, should one fall in the canal and successfully make it out, one will then be subjected to a series of shots that make the needles that the Consultatie Bureau jabbed into Kitten seem like a bowl of spaghetti (I don’t know what that even means, just to imply that the shots for falling in a canal are more severe and numerous).

And the canals here are quite dangerous as well. These placid, picturesque photo opportunities not as tranquil as they seem. One paper has reported that, in the last three years, at least 51 people have drowned in the canals. Granted, 50 of those were the result of drunken individuals opting to relieve themselves in the canal and falling in and drowning (while the other one was the result of some sort of crime), but the fact remains that these canals have a high body count.

So let’s be careful out there, and not skate the lanes until it’s been officially sanctioned, OK?

Thanks.