Let me tell you…this year in Delft has been a cold one. With “feels like” temperatures looming in the low 40s and upper 30s, it seemed as though Winter was still afoot deep into April. Even in Summer, temperatures in the 60s have kept most of my dresses on their hangars.
This perpetually chilled lady is about to tell you the story of a TRUE winter wonderland, however; and although one-half of a year has already passed since these memories were made, I’ve learned that recording precious moments is something better done late than never.
I pray that these words, as well as the pictures I collected, will encapsulate them somehow.
For the past two years, one of my dreams has been to see our beautiful European town in the snow.
Consequently, each time I’ve seen snow forecast, I’ve prayed that God would make it so.
I know that praying for something as frivolous as this sounds silly…but God delights in hearing our dreams, and He loves to give good gifts as well.
We fell asleep the night of February sixth and woke up to an immense blessing as we peeked out our window the next morning. I would have been satisfied with even a dusting of snow…so the 6 inches that had blanketed everything in glorious beauty felt extravagant.
John and I quickly dressed and hurried towards the center square, eager to soak in the reality of my literal dreams and prayers being answered!
Let it be known…The Netherlands does not have the ideal infrastructure in place for handling this type of weather. The going was rough, but with my electric scooter hooked on, and John’s super-push-strength available for an extra boost when necessary, we finally made it.
My phone emerged and managed to snap just a couple of initial photos before it died. Cue discouragement on my end... Fortunately, this snow was just the beginning.
Following breakfast and church service streamed online, and armed with a fully charged phone, John and I ventured back into the snow. In the season of COVID, I’ve become a huge fan of taking photos of our little town….so we had to hit up all of my favorite stops. One of my goals is to make a book of Delft in all seasons, and we seized the opportunity to truly document Winter.
John is the biggest trooper and my ultimate supporter. He pushed me up and over bridges and through heaped snow and slush, never complaining even after the 20th stop and 200th picture, and always asking “where to next?”, instead of “are you done?”. By the end of this epic day, I’d have been content if the snow melted by the end of the next one. But the Winter joys were far from over.
The forecast led to three more below-freezing days, and I gathered up the confidence to venture out into the snow on my own. My scooter did alright, but I definitely solicited the help of kind passers-by when I couldn’t quite make it over various bridges or down snow-packed alleys.
On days three and four of the freeze, I noticed that a thin film of ice had formed over several of the smaller canals in town. John and I had heard rumors of how much the Dutch love skating…but neither of us believed that the ice would thicken quick enough to make this activity possible before the warmer temperatures returned. I certainly enjoyed watching the birds waddle confusedly over the surface, though. One could almost perceive them asking “what the heck is wrong with this water?” as they slipped and pecked around.
Day five began with a walk around “the loop” where I snapped some pictures of a thin ice layer blanketing the larger canal. John soon had his fill of boat watching as large freighter spliced through pristine surface…a truly invigorating experience to witness. He then suggested a ride out to a café in the Delftse Hout (an open space just outside of Delft) for a coffee.
As we rode through the white winter wonderland of the forest, which had been preserved due to the cold temperatures, I thought it couldn’t get any better. I should have learned by this point that God intended to spoil us even more. Lo and behold, as we approached the bridge to the café, I noticed something unexpected…
Due to its location outside the city center, the Delftse Hout had experienced colder temperatures over the course of the freeze. This, combined with the shallow depth of this particular canal, led to…you may have guessed it… ice skaters! Up and down the long stretch of natural frozen water they glided. Some more graceful than others…but each overjoyed at the frozen dream which has become a rarity here.
We learned from the café barista that some had skated the day before, and several had fallen in! Fortunately only into knee-deep water 😊. John ventured out onto the ice at my request for a photo, and we then proceeded to follow the canal for nearly a mile, watching skaters glide past us and marveling at their boldness to skate on ice that made both of us skeptical! In looking at the forecast, however, we were still due for three more nights of below-freezing temperatures.
With this in mind, we started looking for some skates for John to borrow.
Day six was marked by more boats crushing through the outer canal ice, as well as a new discovery. One of the smaller canals within the city center of Delft had frozen solid! John tested the ice, as well as a few of my friends and their kiddos…but I was not quite confident enough to take the plunge (pun intended 😊). After watching tons of kids and adults skating and walking on the ice all day, I made a decision. The next morning, I would “go Dutch”.
We went while the temperatures were still very cold, and not too many people were out. The sun had not touched the ice yet, so we figured it would be at its strongest and thickest on this day seven of the freeze. John lowered my chair onto the frozen surface, and the next thing you know, I was skating…well, kind of.
Cautious at first, I wheeled up and down the canal…my heart dropping with each tiny crackle of the ice beneath my wheels. Within a few minutes, I had built up my confidence, and was doing some serious drifting turns (my version of a triple-axel). Friends joined, and the delight their two young children took in sliding up and down the ice with us made the experience all-the-more magical.
A lunch-break-warm-up coincided perfectly with the realization of a pair of skates for John. He biked to pick them up from a friend while I napped (typical)…and we then ventured out to TRULY fulfill one of John’s dreams. That’s right…at 4pm on February 13th, John strapped the pair of skates to his feet, and joined the hundreds of skaters circling the large lake in the middle of the Delftse Hout open space.
He made it all the way around, but brought back skeptical thoughts on the sun-lit far side of the lake. After witnessing one skater’s plunge through the ice and into the freezing water, we moved to a canal branching off the main body.
With John’s assessment of this ice coming back optimistic, I became emboldened…asking to join him on the canal. We found ourselves surrounded by many others also enjoying the scene. Fraternity boys played games with empty beer crates…“serious” skaters glided effortlessly past…and young families pushed strollers while casually walking down the center of the ice. No matter the activity, an unspoken mutual understanding was shared by all…this was truly magical…truly special…a rare gift to be savored and enjoyed however one saw fit. We were all doing our “own thing”; and yet we were somehow united in the common shared experience of indescribable beauty.
As the sun faded, John and I slid hand-in-hand together up and down the thick, black, natural ice of the wide, tree-lined canal… a memory I hope to bottle up and cling to for the rest of my life…a common grace granted by the God who breathes beauty into existence. And even as my gratitude abounded that evening, He had one final surprise planned for the morning.
The first thing I saw on my phone when we woke up on Sunday was the photo below, sent to us by friends who had come to visit us the previous Fall.
My initial response was disappointment…why hadn’t we thought to go and skate at this iconic Dutch monument!? And now it was too late…rain was due tomorrow!
Curiosity and determination gripped me, however.
As I completed my morning routine in preparation to serve at church, I conducted some research. Public transportation to Kinderdijk was not running regularly…and I knew from experience that to travel there in this way was a full day’s activity. But how long would it take us to drive? Based on my experience travelling there by train/waterbus, I had assumed it was quite far away. You can imagine my delight upon discovering that the excursion is only 41 minutes by car! After consulting with John, I called and booked us a small van from 2pm. We didn’t know if we’d actually be able to make it all the way there with regulations attempting to corral crowds…but we were going to try.
So that afternoon, just as we’d done when we visited the tulip fields in the Spring, we loaded up John’s bike and my scooter into our rental van and set off. Based on one of my prior visits to Kinderdijk, I knew that it was possible to reach the fields of windmills by biking from a neighboring town; and, as we approached our destination, we quickly realized that planning for this option had been a very good call. Road signs detailed that the parking lot at Kinderdijk was closed…so we selected a spot in a small lot off the main road, and set off to cover the remaining distance by bike/scooter.
We entered the fields with ease and shortly thereafter encountered frozen canals just as we’d seen in Delft. Upon reaching the iconic location shown in the picture above (which inspired this whole adventure in the first place), John and I checked out the ice which, based on the cracks and bubbles we could see from the surface, we concluded to be at least six inches thick. With confidence, I rolled out onto the massive frozen oasis.
Alone on the ice, I snapped picture after picture of the scenery as John laced up his skates. He soon joined me, and we quickly discovered that if given a super big boost to get my speed up, I could then maintain the pace with ease as we “skated” together up and down the broad canal, ice crackling beneath us.
As the sun dropped lower in the sky, fewer and fewer people were found on the ice, and we marveled at and soaked in this picturesque oasis we had nearly to ourselves…so magical…so fleeting…so finite…yet forever a reminder to me of God’s faithfulness in both giving and fulfilling a desire of my heart, albeit a frivolous one.
The next day, the rain came. Within hours, the ice had begun to melt substantially, and within two days, the winter wonderland had vanished altogether. But though the experience was short lived…the memory of it doesn’t have to be.
To write and reflect is to preserve…
With my words I encapsulate a week straight out of my dreams. The biting cold, the thick slush, the crackling ice, the freedom of gliding back and forth across the smooth surface, uninhibited by the chair, and quite frankly not even aware of its existence. And perhaps most of all, the simple, unspoken joy of a rare experience shared with sweet community here, and now, even with you.
Thanks for being part of the adventure.
