THE NETHERLANDS - Around 2.5 million people are likely to strap on their skates at the weekend. That is one in six of the country's population.

 Many of them joined one of some 20 organised long-distance tours.

One near Marken, just north of Amsterdam, was cancelled because the thickness of the ice was deemed insufficient.

A tour through the Biesbosch wetlands east of Rotterdam drew tens of thousands of people.

Roads leading to the venue got so clogged that the national skating association KNSB put out an alert urging people to stay away in the afternoon.

A second tour planned there for tomorrow has been cancelled because the ice has suffered too much as a result of the large number of skaters.

[Radio Netherlands / Expatica]