WORLDWIDE PHOTO WEEK: Part 795 - Balanced

Levina de Ruijter wrote in post #19329097
I was on the ice from a very young age. On a type of wooden skates, safe for toddlers. We had real winters back then and everybody skated. I haven’t been on the ice in a long while although I still have a pair of skates. But skating is like bicycling, once learned, it’s learned for life. Although maybe not if you learn it at a later age?

The Dutch have a gene for skating and bicycling that the rest of us envy

joayne wrote in post #19329184
The Dutch have a gene for skating and bicycling that the rest of us envy

LOL
These things are very easy in a country as flat as ours!

Levina de Ruijter wrote in post #19329185
LOL
These things are very easy in a country as flat as ours!

Yeah, frozen lakes are so hard to negotiate when they're hilly.

Going for a walk at the waterfront helps me find
whatever balance I have which is not much these
days, but every bit helps.
Yesterday was very good for me and I also found
some balance shots.

hawaiiboy wrote in post #19329247
Going for a walk at the waterfront helps me find whatever balance I have . . .

Hosted photo: posted by hawaiiboy in
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forum: Member Activities

Kevin, I agree about walks. Walking is good for body, brain, and spirit.

That first shot is really nice. The light hit the rocks just right.

Balanced between light & dark, balanced between circling the earth & flying off into space...

OhLook wrote in post #19329251
Kevin, I agree about walks. Walking is good for body, brain, and spirit.

That first shot is really nice. The light hit the rocks just right.

Thank you so much.

NEW THEME

OhLook wrote in post #19329245
Yeah, frozen lakes are so hard to negotiate when they're hilly.

Yes indeed.
But it’s not about frozen lakes, OhLook. Those can obviously be found everywhere. It’s about all the waterways that connect the lakes and cities and villages in the Netherlands. We are a flat country with water everywhere and all those waterways are interconnected and as such have always been used to transport people and goods over, to the most remote places. Boats in Summer, and, in the past, in Winter, when all water was frozen, sledges, pushed by skaters. Already a millennium ago people were skating here in this fashion. Try doing that in hilly country. At a certain point skating also became a form of entertainment and fun. There is a reason we skate and why we win most medals speed skating. And the flat land really does have everything to do with that.

Levina de Ruijter wrote in post #19329595
Yes indeed.
But it’s not about frozen lakes, OhLook. Those can obviously be found everywhere. It’s about all the waterways that connect the lakes and cities and villages in the Netherlands. We are a flat country with water everywhere and all those waterways are interconnected and as such have always been used to transport people and goods over, to the most remote places. Boats in Summer, and, in the past, in Winter, when all water was frozen, sledges, pushed by skaters. Already a millennium ago people were skating here in this fashion. Try doing that in hilly country. At a certain point skating also became a form of entertainment and fun. There is a reason we skate and why we win most medals speed skating. And the flat land really does have everything to do with that.

Levina, this is a good explanation and made me think about where I live which is quite a mixture of hilly land and flat land. The bottom land provides drainage ditches and rivers that can be used to skate or ski on for miles of ever changing scenery. However it no longer is a pastime of present generations, it's been a long time since I've seen anyone skating here. I do have memories of my fathers large family getting together and playing hockey using sticks they found on site and a flattened steel beer or pop can. At the end of the day many were in pain, often because of poor fitting skates they had outgrown years ago and of course no protection gear whatsoever.

Grizz1 wrote in post #19329641
Levina, this is a good explanation and made me think about where I live which is quite a mixture of hilly land and flat land. The bottom land provides drainage ditches and rivers that can be used to skate or ski on for miles of ever changing scenery. However it no longer is a pastime of present generations, it's been a long time since I've seen anyone skating here. I do have memories of my fathers large family getting together and playing hockey using sticks they found on site and a flattened steel beer or pop can. At the end of the day many were in pain, often because of poor fitting skates they had outgrown years ago and of course no protection gear whatsoever.

Hi Steve!

What a pity your young generations don’t skate any longer. Over here it’s as popular as ever. I don’t know what it is exactly but as soon as temperatures drop below zero, we get excited, get our skates out of storage, have them sharpened and greased and what not.

And if a cold front with freezing temps hit us, speculation begins about the Elfstedentocht, or Eleven Cities Tour. That’s too much for me to explain. Here is a link to Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.o​rg/wiki/Elfstedentocht

A serious prospect of this Mother of all Skating Tours causes a true fever in the country and all other news takes a backseat. We don’t have an Elfstedentocht often as the ice needs to be very thick indeed as several tens of thousands of people will be skating on it, and our winters are getting milder. One thing that is nice about the event is that commerce is kept out of it completely. And it’s live on tv from beginning to end.

You mention drainage ditches and such. You probably know half my country is below sea level so we have some serious water management going on. The only water we can’t really control is the water in what we call “the great rivers” that bring fresh rainwater from Eastern Europe. But water in cities like Amsterdam e.g. is controlled and kept at the same level at pumping stations. And when it starts to freeze, the city will stop the water circulation so the canals can freeze more quickly and people can skate. People skating on the canals, people did it centuries ago and they still do.

Strangely enough we don’t do hockey on the ice.

Levina de Ruijter wrote in post #19329673
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Strangely enough we don’t do hockey on the ice.

Well, you make up for that by having a really strong field hockey team!

Have you taken part in the Elfstedentocht? That sounds like quite an event! Glad it hasn't been commercialized.

RhodyPhotos wrote in post #19329814
Well, you make up for that by having a really strong field hockey team!

Have you taken part in the Elfstedentocht? That sounds like quite an event! Glad it hasn't been commercialized.

Have I taken part? God no, Rhody. This is 200 km in more often than not the most gruelling conditions. This tour starts well before sunrise when it’s still pitch black out there and ends at exactly midnight. It is murderous. It takes the pro skaters (who are competing) 7 to 11 hours to finish! All the thousands (15,000 to 20,000 or thereabouts) of non competing people need way longer. A great many don’t make it. You need to be very fit, a trained skater and crazy to do this! I just watch it from start to finish on tv, like the rest of the country. Although a lot of people will actually go to Friesland to cheer on the skaters. It is a national event.

It’s been a long time since we had a Elfstedentocht, the last one was in 1997. Our winters have been too mild.

Levina de Ruijter wrote in post #19329858
Have I taken part? God no, Rhody. This is 200 km in more often than not the most gruelling conditions. This tour starts well before sunrise when it’s still pitch black out there and ends at exactly midnight. It is murderous. It takes the pro skaters (who are competing) 7 to 11 hours to finish! All the thousands (15,000 to 20,000 or thereabouts) of non competing people need way longer. A great many don’t make it. You need to be very fit, a trained skater and crazy to do this! I just watch it from start to finish on tv, like the rest of the country. Although a lot of people will actually go to Friesland to cheer on the skaters. It is a national event.

It’s been a long time since we had a Elfstedentocht, the last one was in 1997. Our winters have been too mild.

Fascinating! Hadn't known about it. Thanks for the information and the link. The Iditarod of skating. In Canada, hockey, is - of course - one of the main draws to frozen water. Most years, the NHL still stages some games outdoors as "Classics" in honour of its origins.

RDWP wrote in post #19330117
Fascinating! Hadn't known about it. Thanks for the information and the link. The Iditarod of skating. In Canada, hockey, is - of course - one of the main draws to frozen water. Most years, the NHL still stages some games outdoors as "Classics" in honour of its origins.

I had to look up “Iditarod”. Interesting. Is that as big in Canada as our Eleven cities tour is here?

As to hockey, it’s as Rhody mentioned, we are pretty decent at field hockey but on ice we skate and don’t play games. I have no idea why not.