Yesterday at 6:20 PM • Edited yesterday at 8:55 PM
It was unprecedentedly hot in Brabant on Tuesday. In Gilze-Rijen and Woensdrecht it was 30.9 degrees, in Eindhoven the thermometer reached no less than 31.8 degrees, a record. And when it’s this hot, everyone knows what to do: look for coolness. Preferably with an ice cream.
It is very busy on Tuesday at IJssalon Clevers in Overloon. “We’ve had to wait a long time for this weather,” says someone who is just eating an ice cream sundae. “You can keep it going with an ice cream. Highly recommended.”
At a table further away are two visitors who first took a dip. “We went swimming first and then finished it off with a nice ice cream,” he says. “That was necessary, certainly necessary.”
Crowds at ice cream parlors
The ice cream parlors are busy these days. The highlight was on Saturday at IJssalon Clevers. Then the line was 20 to 30 meters long. “The ice cream goes through very quickly, haha,” says an employee of the ice cream shop.
It is not only busy in Overloon. Ice creams are also being made continuously at Intermezzo in Tilburg. “Sunday was our busiest day, when about 1,500 people passed by. The line was fifty meters at its longest. We are quite busy, yes, haha,” says Intermezzo Tilburg. Ice cream parlor Zinin ice cream & chocolate in Eindhoven also agrees. And which ice cream is eaten most often? “Strawberries, especially among the children,” says the Eindhoven ice cream shop.
Not just for people
Animals could also use some cooling. In ZooParc Overloon the spider monkeys were treated to fruit ice creams. “You notice that most animals seek shade when it is so hot. It is still warm, also for them,” says Max Kronier of ZooParc Overloon.
The African wild dogs also got ice cream, but with a very special flavor: blood ice cream. “What we do: the meat we feed is frozen. We let it thaw in a container, and we collect the moisture that is released. It then goes into the freezer, and so you actually get ice creams made of blood.”
