While many people celebrate Christmas Day indoors, the ice rink in Drouwenerveen already attracted a large crowd today. Thanks to days of hard work by volunteers, the track was able to open at 10am. Drouwenerveen has the scoop on this. It is currently the only open ice rink in Drenthe.
Ice cream master Henk Scholte-Aalbes tells how it all started. “We started last Monday to make the entire track clean and free of leaves. We did this with the five volunteers from the association. We then ran water on it.”
“We ran some water on it during the first frost last night. We continued until half past three last night and now have a beautiful ice floor.”
The fact that the track could open on Christmas Day also came as a surprise to the organization. “We have a huge audience today. And that on Christmas Day. We didn’t expect that.”
The ice rink is freely accessible. “For people from Drouwenerveen, the surrounding area and also people who come from elsewhere,” says Scholte-Aalbes.
The ice floor is currently about one and a half centimeters thick. To preserve and further strengthen the ice, the track will close this afternoon at 3 p.m.
“Then we will let water run again, so that we will also have a thick ice floor tomorrow,” says Scholte-Aalbes.
The ice rink will reopen tomorrow morning at 8:00 am. “Then everyone is welcome to skate again. Then we will have a beautiful day tomorrow,” he says.
However, skating fun is expected to decrease from Saturday.
“We think it will be a bit dead on Saturday and that will be the end of our skating fun for now.”
For now, young and old are visibly enjoying the unexpected Christmas gift: skating in the open air on Christmas Day.