As the freezing weather continues, the huge demand for places on organised skating tours has surprised the Dutch skating association KNSB.

‘The madness is worse than 12 years ago,’ said spokesman Raymond Kuiper in the Telegraaf.
A tour round lakes near the Noord Holland village of Kortenhoef attracted 20,000 people. The village became almost cut off because of thousands of randomly parked cars, the paper said.
Massive media attention for the first natural ice marathon since 1996 also surprised the organisation. Some 250 reporters and camera crews turned up for the event. At one point, an NOS camera crew on a motorbike went through the ice and had to be rescued.
According to the latest weather report from the KNMI, a thaw will set in mid next week.
For a list of outdoor skating events, click here (Dutch only)