Hopes for a weekend's skating were running high in the Netherlands yesterday as days of sub-zero temperatures froze lakes and ponds across the country, allowing the Dutch a welcome break from a two-month lockdown.
"This is the perfect reason to go out and have a little fun with the museums and everything being closed," one person said as she strapped on her skates in Amsterdam's Westerpark.
Members of Molenaarsgraaf skating club on the outskirts of Rotterdam had been out with a tape measure on Thursday, drilling a small hole in the ice to measure its thickness and be sure that locals could venture into the centre of the pond safely.
In the centre of Amsterdam, queues formed around skate repair shops as locals prepared for a weekend's skating.
Dutch go skating on frozen ponds in escape from Covid lockdown | https://t.co/NRLHDdoto2 pic.twitter.com/QfS9xBKDFT
— RTÉ News (@rtenews) February 13, 2021
