Canal Zone Fever

I always thought the Dutch a sensible lot. Practical, bourgeois, steady. But in the winter, when the canals freeze, the Dutch, like Brazilians at Carnival, are taken with a fever. Skating fever.

Schools release children for ijsvrij (free for skating) days. Otherwise enterprising adults “forget” to work, and skate through cosmopolitan Amsterdam, medieval Delft or country villages and wildlife reserves. Newspapers and TV daily notify the skating-obsessed country of five- to 500-mile tours on canals and lakes, and special skating maps guide thousands of winter adventurers over frozen waterways.

Fly-by-night koek en zopie (eat and drink) stands create warm havens on the ice, selling hot chocolate, rich pea soup and spicy Berenburg liqueur. Bands play at a moment’s notice.

For a brief while (usually November through February), the water that dikes fend off all year becomes ally and plaything. As skaters reclaim the frozen waters and glide off to otherwise unreachable countryside, Holland expands in size and imagination. The frozen canals form a second system of highways and recreational areas, inviting the Dutch to close their shops, lace up their skates and join the party.

I’d heard tantalizing skating stories from Dutch friends for years. I had promised myself that the next time the canals froze and the Dutch became schaatsgek (crazy for skating), I would be there.

Finally, in late December of last year, word came from Amsterdam. “They’re skating everywhere. And they’re talking about the Elfstedentocht,” my Dutch friend, Hanneke, phoned to tell me.

“The Elfstedentocht!” The Eleven Cities Tour: the culmination of skating fever. I packed my skates and flew.

The Elfstedentocht, a legendary 200-kilometer (124-mile) skating marathon through 11 cities in the northern province of Friesland, is, some say, one of the most difficult skating races in the world.

If the race is held, hundreds of thousands travel to Friesland to watch, and more than 16,000 skaters (about 600 serious competitors who skate to win, the rest enthusiasts who skate to finish) will participate.

Since the race requires ice frozen solid and smooth and since nature is usually less than obliging, the Elfstedentocht has taken place only 15 times in the last century. There was a gap of 23 years (1962-1985) because conditions were never quite right. In 1991, the race was a real possibility until the ice thawed and froze again, leaving the course rough and uneven. In 1996, a skating accident the week preceding the race resulted in its cancellation.

The Dutch newspapers I saw on my flight to Amsterdam reflected the increasing fever. Within two days, there would be 36 skating tours on “natural ice” throughout Holland, including the popular “Windmills and Lake Tour,” which gave skaters the option of a 15-, 20-, 40- or 70-kilometer route.

Many Dutch try to explain skating fever to bewildered American onlookers by saying, “It’s a Dutch thing.” They see it as an aesthetic, athletic and social experience all wrapped into one.

Many Netherlanders, including Dutch skating champion Ria Visser, describe skating on this natural ice as a visual and auditory high. “When you are on the ice, the whole world looks different. You hear the silence. It’s beautiful,” said Visser, who likes to skate in the lake country of Utrecht.

Jeen van den Berg, 67-year-old Dutch skating hero who won the Elfstedentocht in 1954 (setting a record that remained unbroken for 31 years), still skates the 200-kilometer tour because he loves it. But Dutch skating is a tradition born of necessity, van den Berg said. In his grandfather’s day, winter travel by road was often impossible. “If you wanted to visit family in winter, you did it on skates.”

*

I arrived in Amsterdam at dawn, steeped in skating lore and ready for the ice.

I knew just where to find the best skating: the Prinsengracht/Keizersgracht canal neighborhood near Westerkerk, the 17th century church built by Hendrick de Keyser where Rembrandt and his son are buried (though no one knows the exact spot). It’s my favorite neighborhood, rich in cafes, cozy canal-side hotels, exotic restaurants and shops, and with a bohemian spirit much like New York’s Soho.

It also is an excellent place for skating. Each winter, the city of Amsterdam designates the Keizersgracht (the Emperor’s canal) as the official skating canal. During skating season, this waterway is closed to tour-boat traffic and the water flow is shut down to allow for a smooth, deep freeze.

In the cool early morning light, before traffic assumes its usual buzzing pace, the Emperor’s canal conjures the quiet dignity of Holland’s Golden Age, when these canal-side buildings belonged to wealthy merchants and were used as homes and warehouses.

I imagined taking an architectural tour of the canal on skates, gliding under bridges and past 17th century architectural masterpieces by Hendrick de Keyser and Jacob van Campen. I’d skate past the Groenland Pakhuizen (Greenland warehouses) at No. 40-44, where whale oil once was stored in massive tanks, and then glide on past de Keyser’s magnificent house, Het Huis met de Hoofden, at No. 123, to see the sculpted heads of classical deities.

But first I’d settle into my hotel and check the TV reports on the Elfstedentocht. The newscast was full of “the fever.” Finally, after much deliberation, the race was called for 5 a.m., Saturday. Jan. 4, 1997, about 40 hours away.

I made a hurried call to Hotel Water Sport in Heeg, several kilometers off the Elfstedentocht route, just in time to book their last room.

I would drive to Friesland the next morning with my friends Willem Jan and Marijke, stopping along the way to blade through Giethoorn, a lovely 13th century village with thatch-roof cottages and narrow, winding canals. It was first on my list of villages to explore on skates.

Meanwhile, I had hours to skate the Keizersgracht. I found easy access to the ice behind Westerkerk. Skaters sat crowded together as they laced up their leather or plastic distance skates or strapped on heirloom wood and steel Friese doorlopers. One small boy had strapped his Friese doorlopers on to fleece-lined bedroom slippers.

I’d only been on long-blade Dutch distance skates (noren) a few times, but after negotiating deep grooves and lurching out of control, I discovered three essential rules to maneuvering: push off with the sides of the blades (not the toes), find a repetitive cadence, like a waltz, and look down to assess the ice more often than you look up to admire the gables.

*

At noon the next day, Willem Jan, Marijke and I headed for Giethoorn, a perfect spot for skating. Since there are no cars, the primary means of transportation is by boat--or skate--on narrow, tree-lined canals that meander through the village. The canals divide the town into little islands of thatch-roof cottages with extensive gardens, connected to each other by tiny arched wooden bridges.

Giethoorn was even better than I remembered it, (although Marijke, a crusty urbanite, finds it too quaint). To top off the afternoon of skating, Marijke brought us to her favorite Giethoorn cafe, Fanfare. We ate traditional apple pannenkoeken: delicate, platter-size pancakes sprinkled with powdered sugar. When we heard of the growing Elfstedentocht creating traffic jams en route to Friesland, we reluctantly skated down the main canal toward the parking lot.

We knew we were in Friesland when we started seeing signs in two languages, Dutch and Frisian. The Frisians, who speak a language closer to Old English than to Dutch or German, keep their native language alive by teaching it to their children. They also maintain their ethnic identity by flying their own flag and preserving their own notorious national character (taciturn, except during skating season when the entire province becomes amiable, generous and thoroughly obsessed with skating).

When we arrived at our hotel in Heeg, we found the restaurant packed with guests and locals.

On TV the next morning, we watched the true contenders vying for first place and saw the finalists sprinting to break away from the pack and soaring along the ice like low-flying birds. At the very end, the favorites fell behind and a young Brussels sprouts farmer named Henk Angenent took first prize.

“Go to Franeker!” Teen van den Berg, winner of the 1956 Elfstedentocht and participant once again in 1997, had advised me when I spoke with him before the race. “And stay in Friesland,” he added, when I told him of my plan to return to Amsterdam.

It was good advice. We drove to Franeker to see the remaining skaters and join the party. As skaters passed through Franeker, one of the most exuberant cities on the race route, they were greeted by crowds singing “We Are the Champions” and old Dutch classics.

The next morning, Paul de Bruin, a photographer friend who had recently moved from Amsterdam to Friesland, and I had planned to skate through Sloten, a small medieval town on the Elfstedentocht route, or Heeg, a fishing village on a chain of lakes.

But that morning, Paul disappeared. He didn’t even answer his cellular phone.

As it turned out, Paul had taken a tour of his own. He strode out his back door to the narrow canal encircling his country house, turned a plastic bucket upside down on the ice, took a seat, laced up his skates and glided off for an impulsive 25-mile tour of Elfstedentocht towns and tidy farmland. It took him all day.

*

It was a perfect morning for skating. The ice was glassy, the sun bright and the children out in force. I took out my skating map and went out for a blade around town.

I also was determined to skate from town to town. I’d start in Heeg, once an 18th century eel fishing village, now known for sailing, fishing and bird-watching. Since many canals come together in Heeg, skaters have a choice of varied destinations: lakes, nature reserves, farmland or villages.

I found a guide, Deun Lammers, who could explain the scenery and had the patience to accommodate my American pace. We explored the marina, skating on fast black ice past magnificent old wooden sailboats, renovated freighters, barges turned houseboats and a few yachts and motorboats.

The protected marina emptied into a lake, the Heeger Meer, and we followed a recently plowed skating path into the wind, where there were only fields and reeds and a thin fog that melded ice and sky but made skaters stand out all the more dramatically.

As we rounded a bend in the path, we glided onto the river Ee and into the center of Woudsend, a village known for ship making and sailing. We skated under the bridge--past 17th century windmills, gabled storefronts, an antique North Sea freighter--and didn’t stop until we reached the Sloter Meer, a wind-swept expanse of lake between Woudsend and the medieval city of Sloten. Across the lake, the distant steeples of Sloten beckoned, and a shiny skating path led the way.

I remembered what a skater I’d met earlier that morning had told me: “You can go faster than a boat goes. It’s lovely. If you have a good dance, you don’t get tired. You go on and on.”

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

GUIDEBOOK

Skating Places

Getting there: KLM has nonstop service between Los Angeles and Amsterdam; Delta, British Air and Lufthansa fly, with one change of planes. Advance-purchase, round-trip fares start at $867.

Skating tours: Americans interested in marathon skating and skating tours (short skating routes monitored and maintained by local skating organizations) should contact the national Dutch skating organization, KNSB, Postbus 1120, 3800 BC Amersfoort, The Netherlands; from the United States, telephone 011-31-33-462-1784 or fax 011-31-33-462-0823.

Tours are usually group skates, five to 75 miles long, over canals and rivers, through towns and the countryside. Contact the KNSB to find out where skating is being offered. Tours cost about $8 to $10 per person, payable to the skating club sponsoring the route. Participants go to the starting point, pay the fee and skate the route, usually with a group.

Where to stay: In Amsterdam: Hotel Pulitzer, Prinsengracht 315-331, tel. 011-31-20-5235235; doubles $245. The hotel has 24 converted 16th and 17th century canal houses and views of Keizersgracht canal.

Ambassade, Herengracht 341, tel. 011-31-20-6262333; doubles $165 and up with breakfast. Considering the regal decor, this hotel is a rare find.

In Heeg: Hotel Water Sport, De Skattig 44, tel. 011-31-515-442229; doubles from $54, with breakfast.

For more information: Netherlands Board of Tourism, 225 N. Michigan Ave., Suite 1854, Chicago, IL 60601; tel. (312) 819-0300, fax (312) 819-1740.