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Inline Skating Newsletter Article

Skating the Netherlands - Dan's Journal

By Dan Kibler

Day 4 Harlingen to Dokkum

We wake up to pouring rain. It's really coming down! Not much chance that we will be skating soon, so we take a leisurely breakfast. During breakfast the ceiling starts to leak. The owners bring out buckets to catch the water, but it seems to be spreading. Water is pouring down the front of the building. I step outside to take a look and see that the downspout is clogged and water is gushing out of the gutter. Back inside one of the sodden, suspended ceiling tiles crashes to the abandoned table below. I spend the rest of the morning doing postcards while others dodge raindrops to do some shopping.

potatoes up!Finally things dry out, so we strap on our skates and head out of town. Our route today takes us generally east through farm country and small towns. The pavement is nice. After lunch in Tzummerum on tables covered with carpets (quite common actually), we skate through a series of towns named after saints. At one corner, we come across an unusual skate hazard, potatoes in the road. At another intersection, we find an abandoned farmhouse with cartoons of pigs in the windows. This is quirky country.

Most of the afternoon we are fighting a head wind. Drafting helps but it is still hard work. My ankles are getting sore, too. I've been wearing my K2 Freedoms. They are extended frame four-wheel skates with a low cuff - kind of a cross between a rec skating and a racing skate. I've never skated so far on them (or any other skate for that matter) and I've probably had the cuffs too loose. Whatever. My inside anklebones are now bruised.

We stop for a break at a lunch wagon that seems to be in the middle of nowhere. Never the less, it has a steady stream of customers. One couple is on a pony cart - like a gypsy wagon. It's an organic motor home. We see several of them during our week. The proprietor of the lunch wagon chats us up. He and his wife spend the summer out here. He has relatives in the States.

Dokkum from a farWe find Allan and the van in Birdaard, but keep on pushing into the wind into Dokkum. Coming into town, we spot a classic windmill and skate by the clock tower to our hotel. I think Dokkum is the prettiest town we stayed in. It has quaint old buildings but has a modern edge, too. Our hotel is above (Dokkum actually has a few hills!) a wide canal with plenty of boat traffic. We enjoyed a beer at the outside café where we had a unique, close up view of a constant stream of near collisions. We were at a T intersection of two narrow, downhill one-way streets with no stop sign. Bikes, scooters, peds and cars rushed down the hill and merged in front of us with near catastrophic results. A local told us it used to be worse when the narrow main street was two way!

We had a nice dinner of beef in pepper sauce, vegetables and a parfait for dessert. Strolling around town after dinner, we noticed that the clock tower was unique. Instead of the normal chimes, it played classical and pop tunes. At least we could hum along while it was keeping us awake.

DokkumDuring our stay, we passed many street level apartments and houses that had only see-through lace curtains in the windows. The residents were usually eating, socializing or watching TV. It seems they would rather show off their nicely decorated living rooms and see what is happening on the streets than hide behind closed curtains.

See all our Holland Pictures

Learn more about Zephyr Inline Tours.

Read Day 5.