Ijskating in the Netherlands

I have been a bad blogger lately and have not been posting, a problem I aim to remedy soon. But for now, here is a gorgeous video shot probably a few weeks ago, when the canals were all frozen, and everyone was out on the ice. Is it any wonder why the Dutch are famous for their speed skaters?
All of the towns in the Netherlands are surrounded by these dykes, or canals or whatever they are called because so much of the land is reclaimed from lake or ocean waters. Thus, you could skate from one side of the country to the other on ice without stopping, and there IS a huge and very popular race that does just that. It is 800km! It very rarely happens though, because the weather is rarely cold enough for long enough to make the ice solid for the whole trip. Maybe this year?
Enjoy!

Dutch Winter from Kasper Bak on Vimeo.