A woman determines the Eleven Cities Tour. Wonderful, not to be dependent on internet or telephone for a change!

After days of sweet Eleven Cities Fever there was a liberating message on Wednesday evening. Well, liberating… Âlvestêdetocht giat niet oen. Erben Wennemars seems to burst out in tears at De Wereld Draait Door and the chairman of the Society Frisian Eleven Cities has had a more cheerful face in the last days and the tension can be sensed during the press conference. The words: “I do not have good news” by chairman Wiebe Wieling ensure that the Eleven Cities Fever drop to a temperature far beneath the Frisian ice.

Millions of people in our country have seen or heard the word Eleven Cities Tour lately. Nobody could get around it anymore. Waiting, tension about the thickness and quality of the ice. Nobody who can change anything about that. We are completely at the mercy of mother nature.
Every trick has already been tried. Wilfred Guinee broadcasted his first, as well as his last show of ‘Eleven Cities Fever’ on Wednesday evening. The ladies of Vandaag de Dag were ready in Balk to report. The Eleven Cities Tour is trending topic. People try to cancel holidays and appointment are already canceled as well… Because you never know.

Bam, those words from Wieling after all that. Commercialism was already counting the euro signs on its bank account. But suddenly Mother Nature strikes with a little bit of thaw.

Crazy, isn’t it, that we are dependent on just one thing, and that thing is something man has absolutely no control on. But we think it’s okay and we let it all just happen. It is a fun ride after all, a national feast I would almost say. Although for some ice skaters it is really serious and a number of these fanatics would even wage their relationship or job to be able to participate in this Tour of all Tours.

But dependency, did we not want 24/7 certainty and confirmation? Everything has to be signed triple, so that something can not be voided or canceled at the last moment. Because that costs money, or at least wasted energy. But for the Eleven Cities Tour we, the ice skaters, the Societies and
commercialism, love to make an exception. The preparations were already in an advanced stage. The skates were taken out of the grease, signs were dusted off for the stamp posts and I am afraid that Unox had already ordered extra sausages and hats.

Wonderful, not to be dependent on internet or telephone for a change. No, this time Mother Nature has got a tight reign on things.