Not ice skaters – too warm for ice now, but roller skaters, roller bladers, inline skaters – I think those are all terms to cover the fast moving people we met on Nassaulaan this evening.

We were minding our own business. We had been for a quiet walk around town for about an hour, across to the Spaarne and back across the Grote Markt and home down Nassaulaan. Suddenly we saw coming towards us a traffic officer with flashing lights, and we scurried across the road at the bridge over Niewe Gracht – because we thought he was going to be going somewhere in a very big hurry. Easy assumption because when the flashing lights go on they usually are hell bent on getting somewhere pretty quickly.

Not this one, he seemed to be coasting along with his lights flashing and we did not have to scurry at all. We stopped to see what he was up to – rubber neckers – that is us. We watched, and suddenly there were people with whistles and orange vests and skates of some kind or other. Well what would you think, were they on some sort of exercise – learning about crowd control or something. One stopped at Niewe Gracht on each side of the intersection of the bridge and others went past us and stopped at the other side of the bridge – one at each side of the intersection on that side. And then they came – Hundreds of people, all shapes and sizes, in all sorts of gear, normal clothes, sports clothes, clowns clothes (they were gorgeous), orange vests, whistles and wheels – skates, inline skates, roller skates, and roller blades – and they just kept on coming.

All ages, all sizes, all shapes, some crash helmets and knee pads, and elbow pads, and shorts, and skirts and skates – at great speed – like lemmings – they flowed by us while we stood on the bridge and watched open mouthed.

Hundreds more it seems – suddenly we jumped into action – camera – oh s…………. no camera, camera phone, maybe but it was a bit dimm – the light, I mean. Best Beloved took some photos with his phone and he will upload them tomorrow if he can and I shall post them if any are okay.

From what we could tell -there is be an event – and I don’t know, maybe this was a warmup. When we see the paper tomorrow, maybe we will know more. Best Beloved is managing reading the local papers quite well now – so if it is there we will report back.

Eventually all the skating people had gone by – and the orange vested, whistle blower skaters fell in behind – and they continued away up Nassaulaan – at great speed.

It is amazing what you meet in Haarlem in the evening when out on a quiet walk on a beautiful evening.

There was a young man – just a little way along the bridge – and he said “That was cool, that was so cool” – I agree, yes it was cool.

Official figures show a dramatic reduction in the number of bikes stolen in the Netherlands last year. The Dutch are well-known as a nation of cyclists and bike theft causes much irritation.

Just over half a million bicycles were taken in 2009 compared to about three-quarters of a million in 2006. This is down to measures taken by the government, the cycle sector and the police. New bikes are now routinely fitted with hidden chips which can be used to identify their owners.

Quality certification for cycle-racks and locks has also helped, as has the construction of more racks, some of them patrolled, in cities and at stations. The creation of an official register of stolen bicycles has made their recovery easier.

© Radio Netherlands Worldwide

Other Miscellaneous Facts

The April 2010 population of the Netherlands was 16,603,575. and there were 500,000 bikes stolen in 2009. I found that there were 13,000,000 bikes in the Netherlands in 2005. If I find updated figures I will add them to this post.

The Netherlands has the total area of 41,526 sq km (16,033 sq miles), of which inland water accounts for more than 7,643 sq km (2,951 sq miles). The land area is 33,883 sq km (13,082 sq miles). The land area increases slightly each year as a result of continuous land reclamation and drainage. It is bordered on the east by Germany, south by Belgium, and west and north by the North Sea, with a total boundary length of 1,478 km (918 miles), of which 451 km (280 miles) is coastline. Data is from the Encyclopedia of the Nations

New Zealand, which we think of as quite small is the 75th largest country in the world with an area of 270,464 Km2, is more than 6 times the size of the Netherlands, has an April 2010 population of 4,364,134, probably has only 500,000 bikes in the entire country.

Could that mean that the stolen Dutch bikes are in New Zealand?

New Zealand includes Antipodes Islands, Auckland Islands, Bounty Islands, Campbell Island, Chatham Islands, and Kermadec Islands. It excludes Niue (260 km²), the Cook Islands (236 km²) and Tokelau (12 km²), as well as the Antarctic claim of Ross Dependency (450,000 km²). It is the third largest country in Oceania.

Dutch lovebirds often hold hands while pedaling

That is as much geography and social information I can provide today.

Being vertically & linguistically challenged I missed it all when the Olympians came to Haarlem Grote Markt yesterday and to top it off it was freezing freezing cold.

So I went home.