Fun in the snow!

(Beware, this is a long post with lots of pictures.)

It snowed.  Yaaaay!  It looks beautiful here!  This also means that Martin has no work- which is a nice treat for me :)  We went on a very last-minute ski-trip to Germany for two days of skiing.  

I learned that the Germans, Dutch and British have particular ways of serving their beer- specifically the foam.  The German way allows for this:

And of course, we had some schnitzel. 

We went to Winterberg, which is not in the alps, and it's not especially high, but it was skiing.  We had talked a lot about skiing since we met, but this was our first chance to ski together.  It was lovely!

And a little taste of the chalet- notice the German pub song.

It's beautiful here!

Then, a few days later, the snow followed us back to Barneveld.  But, even with this much snow, nothing stops people from riding their bikes...

Gas prices?

Everything about this picture is normal-- except for the snow. (That's 5 bikes together.)

The snow just adds to the beauty-- typical view in Barneveld: train car and bikes. 

THEN to top off fun in the snow, we went out to Martin's Oma and Opa's, and showed up JUST in time to be invited to join a sleigh ride!

And finally, I had to include some pictures of canal-skating!  And yes, I did join in on "Elfstedentoch fever", and I was disappointed to hear the ijsmaster announce that he had "geen goed niews".

In the park that's near our house.

The park

Beautiful in the summer and winter!

As we were driving along the highway in the Western part of the NL.  This was a beautiful, big canal, and I missed the best photo-op, but you can see some skaters if you look closely.

These "canals" are more like big ditches-- everywhere in town!  They're beautiful to walk around in the summer, and perfect for skating in the winter.  I think everyone in town could walk to a skate-able canal within 10 minutes... probably even 5.

I'm not sure if you can see in these pictures, but the most popular household skates here seem to be speed-skates, but I've also seen home hockey-style skates and figure-skating skates.  You know you live in a skating country, when they have a special word for "walking on skates off the ice" (klunen.)

I LOVE winter, and the beauty and peace that seems to accompany it, but can I say that I'm enjoying the lack of snow-shovelling, and minimal car-windshield-scraping, and I'm looking forward to spring!  (We saw some narcissus about 3 weeks ago... and the birds are chirping.)