Is the Ice Safe? Natuurijs in the Netherlands
What does ice formation have to do with translation? Well, I'm finding it hard to stay on top of the Dutch ice-up when I don't speak the language. I have been trying to ensue the frost in the Netherlands for the last two years so I can perceive my life-long dream to shave Dutch ice.
Is the Ice Safe? Natuurijs in the Netherlands
I love to skate, but hate to go in circles. As a kid in Pennsylvania, skating on the farm ponds that would frost up for a week or two was fun, and Wollman Rink in Central Park is a truly great skate and only a few blocks from my place, but my dream was to go as canal-straight as Hans Brinker skating off into the sunset.
Last year, for the first time in 12 years, the canals finally froze. And I found out after the melt. While every person in Holland was having a mega skate season, I was doing laps in Central Park, nearby and nearby in total Dutch ignorance. This year, I swore it wouldn't happen. I've imposed on every Dutchman and woman I know for information, and have tried to ensue events using Google Translate on schaatstochten.info and knsb.nl/natuurijs and it hasn't been easy.
Google Translate basically stinks. (you would think Dutch engine translation would be good because of the strong correspondence between English and Dutch, but it is not, I guess for programming and lexicon resource reasons) But the real qoute is that engine translations are push-solutions, meaning that you've got to recognize the content you want to translate first, because the tools can't do it for you. I suppose you could set up searches for terms such as "natuurijs" (natural ice) and then translate your findings, but that takes a lot of time, and is dominated by accounts of the Elfstedentocht or "Eleven Cities Tour", a 200-kilometer mega-tour in the province of Friesland known as "the mum of all skating tours." There has got to be a better way to get to this kind of data on the real-time web, the way we do it in our native languages. I haven't figured it out yet.
As a hockey pond-kind of skater, I don't know a snow-cone's worth about the way skating is done in the Netherlands. Tours and tickets and maps and signposts and pea soup stands (an further source of propulsion). Very spirited and a perfect mystery. As is the weather, as always. So I must continue to rely on the kindness of Dutch strangers (and friends) for guidance.
The Molentocht Alblasserwaard Tour seems great, since that seems likely to offer adequate Windmillage to accomplish a Hans-Brinker-like state of mind, or the Negendorpentocht Krimpernerwaard for a maximum Bruegelistic experience. What to do? Rent a car, or take the train, and most importantly, when to go!
I've got my fingers crossed that the freeze-up will continue. So, if you have any suggestions, or info on ice conditions, please share them with me, and this post can come to be a clearing-house for other Natuurijs-istas who are Dutch-language deprived. Hope to see you on the ice!
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