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Go to the Ice Skating Marathon
Home » The Netherlands » Netherlands - A One Week Itinerary » Go to the Ice Skating MarathonAn exciting and unpredictable event in the Netherlands is the Great Dutch Ice-Skating Marathon, a one-day tour through eleven cities with 16,000 participants (mostly Dutch) and millions of viewers around the world. The Eleven Cities Tour, called Elfstedentocht in Dutch, is held in Friesland during any year that the 124 miles of lakes and canals freeze into solid ice. Because officials won't know for very long in advance if the wind chill, skating surface, and other variable will make the competition possible, preparations are quick and fierce. Sometimes, experts will actually come in and use ice transplants to close up holes.
The marathon used to be a fable but was officially made into a contest about 90 years ago. It has only actually happened 15 times this century and yet has become an enormous phenomenon in Dutch sports with millions of followers. Sometimes, the tour starts before the sun is even up, and the talented athletes have to race by the light of spectator torches and headlights from the tractors of local farmers. Some contestants even wore headlamps. The winner of the 1997 competition (the most recent one to have taken place) took 6 hours, 49 minutes, and 18 seconds to complete the route.
The tour begins and ends in Leeuwarden, the capital of Friesland, and the ten other cities visited are Sneek, IJlst, Sloten, Stavoren, Hindeloopen, Workum, Bolsward, Harlingen, Franeker and Dokkum. When will the next one be? Nobody knows, but you can be sure that it will be well worth going to if you happen to vacationing in the Netherlands at the time!
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