After days of hard work and a night full of excitement, ice cream enthusiasts in Nieuw-Buinen were finally able to get their skates out of the grease this morning. “It’s just fantastic, really enjoying it,” beams Monique Wessels from the local ice skating club.
“You wake up and look here: can we open? We all went to the ice rink on time and this is just fun,” says Wessels.
However, it was not yet self-evident that the first laps could be skated today. “It was actually quite exciting, because when I went to bed last night I didn’t feel very comfortable yet,” says Wessels. “The temperature did not drop as quickly as we had hoped, and that is why we stopped spraying last night.”
After the sprinklers stopped, Wessels’ nerves increased. “I get very restless and don’t sleep very well at night, because I have so much hope and desire that it will work out.”
Yet she always took into account a good outcome. “On the other hand, you also have to trust that everything will work out.”
And it turned out well, because today the sprinklers were turned on again. “We started again early this morning, with the result that we can open. We succeeded again,” says Wessels with a satisfied look.
Today it was busy on the track, with enthusiasts from outside Nieuw-Buinen also testing the ice. She has yet to see whether Wessels will also skate on the track herself. “If it calms down and I still have time for it, I will put them on for a while. Otherwise I just enjoy other activities.”