Freezing Netherlands!

This last few days, The Netherlands converted into freezing landscape because of the decreasing temperature  from zero degree Celsius down to -10 degrees or much more lower. Last Friday (3 February), a heavy snow invaded The Netherlands which brought major traffic problems, train and plane cancelled. But of course, for the children, it was nice to play outside, throwing the snow ball, making a snow man or skating over the frozen rivers.

Playing on snow with kids (Robert and Kaye-lyn), Nanthicia and Dennis

According to Wikipedia, a cold wave was registered in the Netherlands, with a low of −18.9 °C (−2.0 °F) in De Bilt, the lowest recorded since 1956, and a national low of −22.8 °C (−9.0 °F) in Lelystad, the lowest temperature recorded all over the Netherlands since 1985. . A homeless man was frozen to death on February 2.  People have been ice-skating on the canals of Amsterdam.

After a few more days of freezing weather, the cold snap brought misery to Europe especially in Ukraine which is reportedly the biggest hit area with nearly 100 deaths in the country. Most of these deaths were due to people being homeless and not having a place to stay warm. But for The Netherlands, it was the most exciting moment for them to hold again the Elfstedentocht, a natural ice-skating marathon in the northern province of Friesland that goes through 11 cities and covers 200 kilometres.The last four tours were held in 1997, 1986, 1985 and 1963.Dutch people speculated about the possibility to organize this mythical tour in Friesland. Unfortunately, the ice was not good enough to handle the race. The ice didn't reach the required thickness which should be at least 15cm length. Frustrations or sadness was felt by some of the Dutch people for stopping,organising this event but still, they were looking forward that it's going to be happen in the near future.

Walking on the frozen lake