Outdoor skating

This is the best video of a skating tour that I found as its shows the requisite shots of windmills in the background (for this American), tour cards getting stamped at the checkpoints, and "kluning", or "portaging", around obstacles or weak ice spots on the canal by walking over carpet or plywood.   (Click on the video below or better yet, the URL link and then view in high quality at YouTube.)

There will be outdoor ice of some form in Illinois at least, the Glen Ellyn Speedskating Club (suburb of Chicago) plans to host an organized meet on Saturday on Lake Ellyn on an oval course they will clear of snow with sprints of 500m to 1500m.   Unfortunately, the Hennepin may be too snow covered to skate.

For those desiring long distance skating who can make the journey, there is always Weisenssee skate week in Austria starting on January 20th...

Molentocht Alblasserwaard 2009  See it at http://nl.youtube.com/watch?v=QLO3cf0TNOo and click on the 'watch in high quality' link as the video quality is better.