The Netherlands may have only had a couple of days and nights of real frost but skating fanatics have already taken to the ice in Friesland.

The shallow Ryptsjerkster polder is traditionally the first place in the country where skaters can test out their skills on natural ice and on Tuesday a small group were already doing so.

‘It is fantastic, the ice is really beautiful,’ Herman van der Geest told RTL news. ‘The ice is only three centimetres thick but I have not gone through it yet, and luckily it is not deep here.’

A spokesman for the Dutch skating union KNSB said the Ryptsjerkster polder – an area of marshy land north east of Leeuwarden – is the only place where outdoor skating is currently possible but warned skating fans to be extremely careful. ‘You can drown in a shallow polder as well,’ the spokesman said.

KNMI weather bureau forecasts slightly warmer temperatures the rest of the week, with no more night frosts.