Brrrr

A picture a friend posted on Facebook.  This is the view of the city center from the top of the Martini Tower.

I have to say my timing is impeccable.  There was all of this talk about the Netherlands being a fairly mild weathered winter and it appears this was the month that Europe decided to get hit with the coldest weather in decades.  I heard from one person that it was the coldest weekend it's been since the early 1980s and I heard somebody else say that one day was the coldest day since the 1940s.  Regardless, it's a bit chilly. There's a biting wind and cold that makes a person dread going outside.  Apparently it was the first time that it has snowed here this winter.  All of the people from Spain in my house were really excited about the snow because they don't experience it back home and wanted to play in it.


I know you're probably worried about the biking situation in the snow...

But you don't have to worry, the biking just continued through the snow.  It does make for a more numb face (and arms, legs, hands and feet for that matter) but, if you've got places to go, there's no need to let a little bit of snow stop you.

I have to say, the snow has made the city even more beautiful.  All of the rooftops and brick streets look gorgeous covered in a layer of snow...

Here's a picture of a canal with some houseboats frozen into it. But there's nobody actually skating in this one.

Because it's so cold, a lot of the canals have frozen up and there have been people skating and sledding on them...

I was told that up in Friesland, another province in the Netherlands, they're trying to do an ice race on the canals that connect all of the cities in the region together.  Apparently it hasn't been done in 14 years because they haven't all frozen over enough and it can take 11 hours to complete in the freezing cold.  I guess it's done by a lot of professional athletes and it's pretty brutal.  Brrr.


They say that the spring's a beautiful time to be in the Netherlands but I have to say, despite the freezing temperatures, it still looks pretty beautiful this time of year.