Budapest....gotta go there some day !!

[level42]

Watching the all-round European championships speed skating in Budapest....
The oldest skating ring in the world and definitly the one with the most beautiful scenery !

Béla, watch out, orange dressed skating fans will flood the city

[Superully]

you should watch ski jumping instead! but wait a minute, do you even have sportsman who do that? eh, do you guys even have a mountain?

[level42]

You should watch ski jumping instead! but wait a minute, do you even have sportsman who do that? eh, do you guys even have a mountain?

Wait a minute, a geography teacher is asking if we have mountains in The NETHERlands ?
.....mmmmmmm...

Well dont underestimate. our highest mountain is Mount Scenery and is 877 m. high.

OK, it is on the Island of Saba in the Caribean, but it sill is Dutch

The "highest" mountain in mainland is the Vaalserberg at a whopping 322 meters ....

So, no we don't have any ski jumpers regretfully....we do have an Olympic champion snowboarding though !

But this is Holland, we Dutch love speed skating and we're pretty good at it....
So are the German females and you should support them. My favorite is Anni Friesinger but I guess she's almost Dutch by now and of course she stopped. Still love her giving commentery now, love her accent, and the rest aint bad either

[Superully]

322 meters - you can't call that a mountain.

of course i knew, wasn't there (or still is) this plan to BYOM (build your own mountain) with a height of 200 meters?

[level42]

I knew you knew of course, just my usual tease

Yes there are plans for our very own mountain !

Will look great ! (ahum):


I think it has to become 2000 meters !......now we have to find a little spot for it.

[Superully]

this is the picture "shipped around" in germany

[level42]

Hah, I could have guessed that the Germans would include our beautiful coastline that they love so much

But I dont think that the plan is to put it in the North sea

I took the picture from the official website : www.diebergkomter.nl




Somehow I love the open skaterings. Of course, a roofed one is probably more honest, but there is something heroic about also fighting the elements like hard winds now....

[Belike]

That ice ring is very old indeed,  it was opened in 1870 and looked like this

It is located in a very nice huge park in the heart of Budapest.A pic from the 80's:

And a after a 3 years of reconstruction and the usual corruption scandal

And it is a nice pond in summer time, ideal for romantic boat rides

[level42]

Yep i recognize the buildings from the TV pictures...very nice.

They mentioned that the small castle on the last picture was only meant to be temporary but since everybody liked it they decided to keep it....is that the reason for the lines, some support for the tower ?

They said on the radio here that the ring is still very popular for skating and they actually make a profit, pretty rare for skating rings here...

Also saw a shot of Emese Hunyadi who was now commenting for TV (Hungarian ?)  I will never forget her doing a pirouette on speed skates! She was originally a figure skater so that's why she could do this....still not easy with those long irons....
She had an amazingly long career, somewhat like Claudia Pechstein..