Ice Skating

This only happens once in a blue moon, but when it does you have to be there: Ice! The last time we had this much was in 1997! Ok, we did have a rink in town, but that is just not the real thing. Nothing beats skating on real ice, on the canals, or even better, on a lake, or maybe even better: Wherever there is water! We were almost there, but not quite yet. We did skate on a lake though as you can see in this picture.

Tobias' first skating experience was on the rink in town. The canals were frozen over but not reliable yet. We rented double blade skates for him and tried it. A few days later (end of December) the canals were reliable. I bought Tobias double blade skates and he actually did quite well. We had an accident though when we I pushed Tobias on a chair. We were going pretty fast and Tobias was liking it. Then.... we got stuck in a hole in the ice (cause by an air bubble) and the chair stopped but Tobias didn't. In Tobias' words he was "flying like a bird", and in a way he did. He landed belly and face flat on the ice. Fortunately all the damage was a little abrasion on his forehead. Minutes later he was ready to go on the chair again.

Nonny watched Tobias and remarked while taking pictures: "I thought this only existed in the movies...". She was talking about canal's frozen over, white frosted trees, and lots of children out on the ice playing, skating, sledding and what not.

Then we had a few days of thawing. The canals were no longer reliable and we had to get back to the rink. We did and met a friend of Tobias'. She was skating on single blade hockey skates. Of course Tobias wanted to try that too and actually did quite well. So, when the temperatures dropped again I went out and bought him single blades (the ones he's wearing in this picture). The temperature dropped so low that from last wednesday (one week ago) until last sunday we were able to skate on lakes, and we did! On wednesday my dad and I went for a tour in Aarlanderveen and I took Tobias out on the canal to try his new skates. On Friday. Tobias and I went on an even bigger canal. Saturday we went to my parents and skated on a fairly sizable lake, 8 km in length. My dad and I went up and down once, and later I played with Tobias, both sledding and skating. I fell that day and hurt my knee pretty bad, so I had to take it easy on sunday. I took Tobias to a lake near where we live. This picture was taken there. Tobias and I went for at least about 7 km or so, which I think is quite far for a little boy on single blade skates for the third or fourth time.... (I have to admit I had to hold his hand... :-)).

Well, as I am writing this the fun is over... I am hoping that we will have another opportunity to skate this year, but like I said, something like this only happens once in a blue moon....


For news on Tobias' sister Lorelei visit: Lorelei Michelle