vmaxbabe wrote:

so how is hospital food get well soon, and get back on the beast

Yes, you enjoy, but... if the longest speed skating marathon will finally take place again, I'll be sitting front row in front of my tv! Being on sick leave I don't have to fight with my colleagues for a day off, haha!

This moment the rayon chiefs are meeting in Friesland! YES! The biggest Dutch national winter event, the Elfstedentocht, may be on its way (last one was in 1997). Believe me this is bigger than 10 Superbowls in the Netherlands!!!!

embedding disabled by request
watch on youtube

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I was able to watch even though it is emmbedded.

Friede...what are the competitive skaters skating on???

Hope your recovery goes well.

Hanshi they took really good care of me, including the food .

But the accommodations were fabulous this time: a private room with a spectaculair view! After the surgery, after I was back from 'deepsleep', they put my bed in the winter sunlight in front of the window. Between drinking orange juice, surfing the internet & watching telly, it quickly was visiting hours. Next day I could go home again. Since last friday had a nice walk in the snow every day.
Complet mending prognosis: 4 months.

Remaxed wrote: Speed skates. Nowadays the evolution brought the profs the klapskate. Speed skates can be bought in any sports shop in Holland. Make no mistake. Every news tv station is buzzing now whether it's going to happen this year. Shipping transport was stopped in Friesland last week.

Sorry Friede...I meant the surface they are "on"...looked like a frozen stream or a maintained paved road surface. Looks like many, many people attend.

I remember my DAD had a pair of speed skates a very long time ago.

same ride again today (except pictures on the mountain side and with a better camera) :

Remaxed wrote: A route over natural canals & lakes passing the 11 Fries cities over a length of app. 125 mls. Best time: 6:47 hrs. Started in 1909, been organized only 15 times. Only once a winter when the ice is 15 cms thick over the whole route. Which isn't very often. Guy that wins it is a national hero for years.

Only app 15.000 amateurs are allowed to ride it depending on the ice conditions & the risks of sending so many riders over the same route. They Must be at the finish at 24:00 the same day.

The race riders start first at 5:00 in the morning. Than the amateurs in groups of a couple of thousand at a time.

PASCAL wrote: V
Great picture of your bike in the mountain, Pascal.