Dutch in ice skating fever

The Netherlands has been gripped by ice skating fever. For the first time in 15 years the Elfstedentocht (Eleven Cities Tour), the world's longest ice-skating marathon on natural ice, could take place again this week. The 200-kilometre tour around the eleven Frisian cities is causing a little too much excitement, the Christian-social daily Trouw believes: "In the winter, when everything looks dead, nature helps us to believe that not everything has come to an end. ... The ice skaters who glide through the landscape demonstrate that they are in control of life and death. Then we organise festivals on the ice. We challenge the ice by trampling on it in unison. It is so typical of our culture that after one day of frost people immediately start talking about the Eleven Cities Tour. Our culture revolves around immediate gratification. We want everything, and we want it now. The Eleven Cities Tour is no longer a celebration of victory at the end of a harsh winter but an orgy to which we are entitled - or so we believe."

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