Olympics.

[Dandy Dave]

Watching the Nations of the world compete. Wow. Just watched the Netherlands get gold, silver, and bronze in speed skating. Way to go! Two winners are twin brothers. Dandy Dave!

[Brian]

And their top skater, Henk, was not competing!

[Dandy Dave]

Maybe Henks Fordson does not like the cold mornings up in the mountains? I have a hard time starting myself in the morning with the weather we have been having here the last month, let alone a Tractor. Some mornings have been around -17 C and lower. - 19 C right now. Dandy Dave!

[Brian]

Henk does not normally take his tractor with him skating on the canals but when we were in Franeker in Friesland for New Year in 2012 the locals were skating and riding bicycles on the frozen Ijselmeer.

When Henk logs on he may tell us about the Twelve Towns race where the competitors race between Dutch towns along the canals.

[henk]

Indeed the Dutch ice skaters are performing excellent. The first day on the 5 km we had three man on the podium. This never happened before. Sven Kramer is a class apart.
The next day we had Ireen Wust on first place at the 3 km. She is also super. Then to our surprise we had again three man on the podium and even twin brothers. This was the first time Holland ever won a golden medal at the 500 meters. And today we had a bronze medal at the 500 meters woman. This Margot Boer was really happy with her bronze medal
And there is more to come.

I’ve been skating every fortnight on Friday afternoon all winter, but I’m far away from times like 30 seconds per round. I manage a time from 60 seconds, so the Olympics are far away. But when I’m going a bit faster it feels Olympic.

We haven’t had many cold mornings over here and a especially not in our mountains . So the Major is starting and running smoothly. But with almost 2.5 ton’s she a bit too heavy to go on ice with her. A Dexta would work fine to clean the ice when it is thick enough.

Witch town have you added to the eleven city’s Brain?
This match is something special. You have the prof skaters and the public run with limited participations. It’s 200 km long and starts very early for the profs in the morning when it’s dark night. You have to get your stamp at eleven villages and towns and for the public run you have to get across the finish before 24.00 hours. Then you earn the Eleven City Cross. You can say earn it because it’s very heavy. It has to be extreme winter weather to get the ice thick enough so the conditions are extreme too. Cold and wind on the IJselmeer is the killer. When this match can be run, all Dutchman get’s insane. Skaters that has frozen parts or even broken finger or shoulder will keep skating to get across the finish.
The winner at the profs has glory forever, his name will be remembered for many many years.

In the summer the eleven city tour can be done by different sorts of bikes, walking and yes by tractor. It’s a two day run. So Brian, bring Dotty over at the right time and you can enjoy the landscape of Friesland from a tractor.

For those who want to see more, just type elfstedentocht at youtube.

[Brian]

The memory is going Henk! Do not know where the extra city came from. Great idea to do the tour on a tractor, Ann is already booking the boat as I type.

By the way Dave, have you booked your flight over yet? Fordson tractors at Newark in June and we will be there with quite a few tractors, Pascal will be joining us too.

[Dandy Dave]

No, Not yet. Too early on to see if I can do it or not. Sure would be fun if I can swing it. Dandy Dave!