That is the question that the entire country here is obsessed with at the moment ! In other words, will the Elfstedentocht (the 11 city ice skating marathon of 200kms) happen or not? The past 10 days have been extremely cold, with max temperatures not getting above -5C so there is plenty of frozen water!
All hands are on deck (including the army!) to clear the route of any snow still laying on the ice and slowing down the freezing process, and the heads of each stage of the race are out on the ice almost 24-7 constantly measuring the thickness of the ice ! In some places there have even been ice transplantations! As far as I understand that means literally dropping big blocks of ice into the water and waiting for them to all freeze together.
According to the race rules the ice has to be a minimum of 15cms thick. However in some places it is still only 8cms and people are really starting to panic that it will not happen. Forecast is that by Sunday the temperature will be back up around +5C so every single finger and toe is crossed here and nobody talks about anything else at the moment :-) The last time the race was held was 15 years ago in 1997, so everyone is obviously hoping and praying that it happens again. Will keep you posted.
Alli xxx
