Plenty of Nothing

Léo Major

Crazy bastard Léo Major captured the Dutch town of Zwolle from the retreating Germans on this date in 1945. Source.

Stella Lux

Stella Lux is a solar car designed at the Eindhoven University of Technology. Source.

Erasmus the Sailor Man

This wooden carving of Desiderius Erasmus was a stern figure on the Dutch galleon De Liefde, which was stranded in Kyushu in 1600. Source.

Ice, But No Elfstedentocht

The Dutch canals froze this week for the first time since 1997, but Covid restrictions prevented the staging of an Elfstedentocht. Nevertheless, Henk Angenent, the 1997 winner, retraced the route. Source.

Anton Geesink

Family members pose in front of a bust of Anton Geesink, who in 1961 became the first non-Japanese to win a World Judo Championship. Source.

Elfstedentocht

The Elfstedentocht is a long distance race over the frozen canals of the Dutch province of Friesland. In its early years the ice conditions were favourable only about once every five years, but the race has not been staged now since 1997, and with global warming there's concern that it might never be possible again. Source.

The race begins and ends in Leeuwarden. Today's weather forecast for Leeuwarden projects a high of 10 and a low of 8 Celsius.

Tilburg Trappers versus Moskitos Essen

Trappers versus Moskitos. Source.

Tilburg Trappers are the best hockey team in the Netherlands -- so good in fact that they quit the Dutch league in 2015 and joined the German Oberliga in search of stiffer competition, and have won that league three of the last four years.

The German Oberliga was founded in 1948 and was for a time the top league in the country. It now functions as the third tier behind the DEL and DEL2. There are two divisions, each of twelve teams. The South section is made up entirely of teams from Bavaria. The North section includes teams from North Germany, including the former East Germany, and Tilburg.

Tilburg, in North Brabant, is the sixth-largest Dutch city. Tilburg Trappers were founded in 1938. They have been Dutch champion 15 times.

Tilburg's Ryan Collier has joint Canadian/Dutch citizenship.

Moskitos Essen were founded in 1999, but represent a lineage of Essen hockey clubs going back to 1935. They wear a very Nineties colour combo of purple, red and teal.Canadians: Keven Beech, Peter Leblanc, Aaron McLeod.

Essen is a major industrial city in the Ruhr Valley.

We join the 2019-20 Oberliga Nord season already in progress. After 21 games Tilburg hold first place. Essen are tenth.

Learn about the history of Tilburg Trappers here. Then watch a video about the guys who sharpen the skates and fill the water bottles.

[Trappers win 7 - 4.]

Willem Frederik Hermans' Typewriters

Boekhandel Limerick in Ghent has a room devoted to the typewriter collection of Dutch author Willem Frederik Hermans. Source.

Holocene Holland

For a complete set of zoomable maps of the evolving topography of the Low Countries, go here.

J1407b Ring System

How the J1407b ring system might appear if it were around Saturn, and you were in Leiden. Source.