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February 2007skatingholiday on Weissensee in AustriaPublished: Feb. 7, 2007 at 12:15 PMLast modified: Feb. 7, 2007 at 12:16 PM
I have had a skatingholiday on a lake (Weissensee) in Austria. I bought a new orange cap against the cold and during a busstop new Mozartkugeln, Mozarthertzl and Mozarttruffel.      
Box MozartkugelnPublished: Feb. 8, 2007 at 12:12 PMLast modified: Feb. 8, 2007 at 12:16 PM
I just eat some bread after all those Mozartkugeln from this beautiful box I bought in Austria. On it is the text: "Mozart makes a party with family and friends."         
skatingholiday on Weissensee in Austria 2Published: Feb. 9, 2007 at 12:19 PMLast modified: Feb. 9, 2007 at 12:24 PM
During my skatingholiday on Weissensee in Austria I discovered that my skates for atificial ice did not work as well as for nature ice, so I bought new onces. With the artificial skates I needed 24 minutes for 7 km ice and with my natureice skates only 21 1/2 minutes.  My click skates for artificial ice  My click skates for nature (rougher and less smooth) ice, which are much more stable and comfortable for my ankles  Some tourskaters like me  (Dutch) Woman competition skaters 60 km in 2 hours  Dutch) man competition skaters 100 km in 2 1/2 hours   A motor with camera
11-city-tour (fever) in Holland 200 km. After 16 ½ hours I got my 11-city cross on 21 februari 1985. Double DutchPublished: Feb. 11, 2007 at 11:39 AMLast modified: Feb. 11, 2007 at 12:10 PM
Since long ice in the Netherlands is a rarity. When we have a cold winter everybody wants to skate. You can see this on old paintings of the Dutch painter Hendrick Avercamp (1585-1634).   In Holland just like Finland there is a lot of open water and lakes, where people can skate long tours. The most important tour and competition is the 11-city Tour in the Northern part of the Netherlands Frysland. Here the dates of the 15 11-city-tours of the last century: 1th, (2 januari 1909), (7 februari 1912), (27 januari 1917), (12 februari 1929), (16 december 1933), (30 januari 1940), (6 februari 1941), (22 januari 1942), (8 februari 1947), (3 februari 1954), (14 februari 1956), (18 januari 1963), (21 februari 1985), (26 februari 1986) , last 15th 11-citytour (4 januari 1997)  route of the 11-city tour. In the left the 11-citycross you get for finishing before 24.00 midnight I took part in 1985 and finished after 16 ½ hours of skating 10 minutes before the deadline 24.00 hour that day. In the end my ankles were so weak that I only could stand on my left foot and stepped with my right foot. It was the hardest day in my life. People of the army, who helped the organisation that day, brought me to my guest-address on a stretcher in the starting city, because I was total loss and had no energy to go home on my own. One week I had very thick ankles.  11-city tour skaters The winner of the competitionskaters only needs 6 ½ hours for the same 200 km.   competitionskaters In 1986 I was skiing in Austria and in 1997 I was lucky to get a starting chance after the lottery, because the race is too popular and too many people wants to skate that legendary race. But instead to 1985 when I could start early I only had 14 hours from my startingtime 10.00 till 24.00 midnight and that was not enough for a slow skater like me. Every time in a strong winter people in the Netherlands get the so called 11-city-tour fever, and get very nervous and excited. (I also get this fever) On the Weissensee in Austria there is nearly every year enough ice to organize this 200 km race, EXCEPT this year for the first time, because of the altitude of the lake 960 km above sea level. My aim was this year to TRY to skate again 200 km (Dutch people have a sort of obsession with this distance) on the Weissensee, but you gets much less time. Everybody starts at 7.00 hours and before 17.00 you have to start your last round of 16km or 25 km. So you need 18,4 or 17,5 km/hours as average speed including rest. Some tourskaters skate this year unofficial 15 rounds of 7 km (100 km) or even 28 rounds (200km) for their own, because of our 200 km obsession. The website of the Winter Marathon Foundation http://62.50.1.68/sitewide/english.asp Webcam Weissensee http://msplins01.bon.at/weissensee.com maratonspeedskating Dutch website : http://www.marathonschaatsen.nl The Alternative 11-City Race The Alternative 11-City Race has been a Dutch tradition since 1974. The original version in Friesland, the most Northern province of the Netherlands, goes back many centuries. It is an ice skating race over 200 kilometres, through 11 towns linked by canals, rivers, lakes and a part of the former Zuiderzee. Skating ice found abroad As the Dutch waters don't freeze over so easily, the Dutch started looking for alternatives in other Countries. In 1974 a race over 200 kilometres was held in Lillehammer, Norway. In 1976 the race was held in Lahti Finland. The race stayed in Finland for a couple of years and was held on different lakes. In 1983, '84, and '85 the Marathon over 200 kilometres was held in the USA and Canada (Vermont and Ottawa). In 1985 and '86 it was held in Poland, and in 2000 the race moved to Akan in Japan. Weissensee Since 1989 the 'Stichting Winter Marathon' (Winter Marathon Foundation) organizes the race on a beautiful, 11 kilometres long mountain lake in Austria in the wonderful village Weissensee. The start and finish line are at the foot of the ski-slopes. There are three versions of the Alternative 11-City Race: the race for professionals, the fast amateur tour, and the recreational tour. The event is always held in the last week of January or in the beginning of February. Around 6,500 Dutch people and a few hundred people from other nations meet each year at Weissensee. This year 250 skaters will skate in Mongolie on a frozen lake, between China and Russia, as you can read on the website of the Winter Marathon Foundation. Now there are plans in Holland with several artificial 400 meter ovals to make an artificial ice route of 5 km!!, because of the lack of enough cold below 0 Celsius to skate on nature-ice. Perhaps now you understand the expression: “double Dutch.” As you can understand from this story and the paintings from round 1608 ice-skating is deep in our culture and we have a lot of speedskating Olympic- and worldchampions. American Olympic champions like Chad Hedrick and Shani Davis who are relatively unknown in the U.S.A. are big heroes in our country.  Chad Hedrick a former inline skater  Shani Davis Sorry I have to stop this entry, because now the World Champions speedskating all round (of course held in the Netherlands)are on the Dutch television. Man have to skate 500, 1500, 50000, 10.0000 metres and woman 500, 1500, 3000, 5000 meters in one weekend and get overall points for those 4 distances.
André Rieu plays violin with the 5 year old Akim CamaraPublished: Feb. 11, 2007 at 6:12 PMLast modified: Feb. 11, 2007 at 6:13 PM
Yesterday I saw a concert of André Rieu in the Radio City Music Hall in New York on Dutch Television, where he play with the 5 year old Akim Camara. More about him on http://www.andrerieutranslations.com/translations/Andre-and-Akim.html He plays the "dance of the fairies" solo with the Johan Strauss orchestra of André Rieu.   Do you think this is child labor or does it mollificates?   He also does a tric by first drinking some water, than pouring water in his ear and than spitting out the water he just drunk, which make some people laugh in the audience. 
Dutch gypsy orchestra Csardas + violincard 26, 27Published: Feb. 12, 2007 at 12:00 PMLast modified: Feb. 12, 2007 at 12:04 PM
Last weekend I was at a concert of a Dutch gypsy orchestra from Leiden. I remember that a violinfriend said 30 years ago that this orchestra exists. I went visiting them during a rehaersal, but they did not need me as afterbeat 2th violinist. They had a gypsy trumpet player from Rumania and a woman singer also from Rumania. They played music from Hungary, Rumania, Russia, Moravia (east Czech), Slovakia. Once piece was the original of de Sarasate Zigeunerweise (which I played with an orchestra).  I was also in the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam where I heard Gidon Kremer (it was his birthday 60) playing with his Baltic orchestra adagio of the 10th symfony of Mahler, filmmusic of Korngold, trauermusic of Goebaidoelina (a violinconcerto) and pieces of Astor Piazzola and an arrangemant of Glenn Miller and the orchestra was crooning during the last note. I earlier heard Kremer with this Piazzola, Miller-programm  
Aaron Rosand' s violinconcertorepertoirelistPublished: Feb. 14, 2007 at 12:20 PMOn violindiscussion a lot of people write about Aaron Rosand playing on Youtube and smoking a cigar. In the book The way they play of Samuel & Sada Applebaum is Aaron Rosand' s violinconcertorepertoirelist ARENSKY violinconcerto 
Scratch-musicals choir of 900 persons, orchestra of 100 personsPublished: Feb. 18, 2007 at 12:13 PMLast modified: Feb. 18, 2007 at 1:05 PM
Every year in Leiden they have the 4 scratch-days. See http://www.scratch.nu   orchestra with 300 man of choir behind and 300 right of the orchestra  part of the choir  a choirgallery during a break  Orchestra with a drummer in orange during the musicalscratch for the rythm. You can see parts of the left side of the choir and the part of the choir behind the orchestra This we played with 2 solosingers  Mozart himself listening to his requiem  Concert in the evening with soloist. The concertclothing is free, but they like a purple accent in your clothing, the color of the organisation, so the singersoloist have a purple scarf.
Big difference between discussion and blogsPublished: Feb. 19, 2007 at 11:43 AMIn the discussion the item http://www.violinist.com/discussion/response.cfm?ID=10665 A New Video of Aaron Rosand Aaron Rosand's new video on youtube.com from 10 februari had in 3 days 100 reactions and was archived. You can find it back here http://www.violinist.com/discussion/index.cfm?category=Violinists So I decided to write the whole violinconcertorepertoirelist of Rosand on my blog to continue the discussion about Aaron Rosand, which I have read in a book, but no single reaction (ok my entries are often quite boring) and now that entry is also archived, so you can't react any more. But they are 2 worlds: the few people who write in a blog and react on it and much more people taking part in the discussions about aspects concerning the violin.
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