Skating fever: Arie has already mastered the first meters, swans on the track in Nibbixwoud

Arie Klaver lives for the natural ice. As soon as he even suspects that a thin layer of ice will hold him, the 73-year-old Medembliker puts on his skates. This is also the case this morning, near the Regatta Center in Medemblik. “I had already seen a puddle yesterday. This morning I stepped on it, but it still didn’t last. A little further on, where the sunbathing area was flooded by high water, it was possible.”

And so the veteran glided over the Medembliker water, not slowed down by much cracking. “I skated wonderfully for half an hour. At most I could get my feet wet, so that’s not so bad. It’s not so much about being the first, I just want to get on the ice as quickly as possible. If possible, then I’ll go.”

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He’s going out again tomorrow. “Then I choose another part. I dream of the flooded Nesbos in Onderdijk. But there is still quite a layer of water there. Hopefully the frost will continue for a few more nights. Everyone likes that.”

Arie was also there early last year, together with his dog Angel. He now has to miss that, after the four-legged friend collided with a car a few months ago. The dog did not survive the accident. “My faithful comrade,” Arie laments. “He definitely came along, because he loved it on the ice.”

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Still hope at Nibbixwoud ice rink

At the ice rink in Nibbixwoud, volunteers Kees Koomen and Maarten Kroon grab a rope of about 100 meters. They both stand on one side of the village’s ice rink, with the aim of chasing away the two swans that are hindering the ice formation. “Those brats don’t want to leave,” Kees grumbles.

Can the ice rink open to members this week? is the question he hears a lot these days. A day earlier he had a hard time. “But yesterday we stretched 50 meters of cloth in the corner where the wind came from. And now the two holes that were there are closed. If it freezes like this again the next night, it might be possible. Even if it is only a day before the kids.”