Oh thank you BranShea! NY (the former New Amsterdam) has lots of ice skating rinks, and some places that are safe to iceskate, but often our winters are too mild--but i don't know of anywhere in US where there are ice skating tours of that sort!
but there have been (in my life) times when the north (hudson) river has frozen hard enough for people to walk over it. (its always discourage!)
(pretty impressive since a good deal of NYC's (treated) sewerage goes into the river (and is a good deal warmer))
Jackie, don't you know the story of Hans Brinker and the silver skates? its about a boy who longs to win a iceskating race/contest and win the prize of skates with silver blades. I guess i have always thought of the netherlands as being the home to:
tulips
canals
windmills
and skating.(and cookies)
when i went to amsterdam, i felt right at home, there is still a dutch flavor to parts of NY-enough so amsterdam had feeling of home.
(NYC's flag has a dutch windmill as one of its elements, as well as the color orange-(from the house of orange-the royal house of the netherlands in the 1600's)
(we've been having lovely cool weather, and the news reports have started posting "optimal color" maps for veiwing fall foliage. (the best now is up in maine, and northern NE- Wow (and southern NE have just entered the 'start' of the fall colors.)
in the spring, they report on the best time for cherry blossums, moving upward from DC to the northern suburbs of NY--
