Tuesday 26 January 2010

Mum, can we go skating ?

The snow has cleared up over the last few days, but it's still pretty cold here at the moment. -9 C outside our window this morning. Yesterday I took some photos of these children who were skating on one of the frozen canals.

Note the pile of bikes beside the cycle path on the left. That's how the children got here. There's no adult supervising, so no adult's bike amongst them.

It's safe here for children to cycle on their own, and for them to skate on their own too.

Ice hockey is popular too. These children were practising a little further along the same canal.

And of course their bikes were not far away either.

How else to travel ? This way there is no need to wait until Mum (or Dad) can give them a lift. In the summer they do much the same to go swimming.

Is it any surprise that Dutch children have again been shown to have the best lives of all children living in industrialised countries ?

2 comments:

  1. Most ponds or water ways here in Southern Ontario haven't even froze over yet.

    We're experiencing a fairly mild winter so far. Temperatures have been around 0°C. Except for the remainder of the week which is around -5°C. Next week we will be going back to around 4°C.
    It feels as if we have had more rain than snow. I don't recall ever seeing rain in January.

    When ponds do freeze over, at least most will walk. Biking in the winter is considered for only the "hardcore".
    I've never had any issue with biking in the snow. Just an added inconvenience but nothing more.

    Nice to see some potential, future NHL players there! ;)

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  2. What an inspiring scene! I hope to be able to help my children enjoy a childhood like the one depicted here -- even though we live in the lowest ranked country cited in the study.

    Thanks for the fabulous blog. I appreciate having an opportunity to see how a culture that values bicycling looks.

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