December was extremely mild. In fact, December 2015 was the warmest ever recorded, with no frost at all.
The warm weather continued into New Year's Day, when we went for a very pleasant ride through the countryside, but by the 3rd of January everything had changed. Part way through my ride, I found I was accumulating ice - particularly on my mirror.
Winter has now well and truly arrived. It's "only" -5 C ("feels like" about -15 C, apparently) and we've had much lower temperatures in previous winters, but we've never had such widespread black ice as we have at the moment. There have been many crashes on the roads and that's why there a "code red" emergency has been declared and everyone has been told to stay home rather than risk travel. Even a skating marathon has had to be cancelled because of cold weather.
Of course, when told to stay home because of the weather, some Dutch people see conditions suitable for play, so the local news has been full of videos of local people doing things such as skating along roads.
I find studded tyres help enormously with the usual winter conditions, but in my opinion even they are not really enough to make the current conditions safe. But if you have three wheels (one studded tyre fitted on the back) it's relatively safe to go for a short outing, so that's what I did this morning in my velomobile, taking photos on the way:
I first headed out into the countryside on a small recreational path. It looks quite clear, but actually the surface is like a very rough skating rink. I had to limit my speed to 10 km/h in order to ride in anything approaching a straight line. Not suitable for two wheels.
The same path. Three wheels make it much safer !
On this photo you can see what the surface was like. Cyclists who went along here a few days ago left ridges behind, which have now frozen solid. These grab your wheels and make riding in a straight line dangerous. Everything in-between is super slippery ice.
Heading back into civilization on the same skating track.
"Civilization" turned out to be just as dangerous. These residential streets offered no grip whatsoever.
Main cycle-routes have been swept and salted so these are relatively safe. Some people are cycling - but numbers are nothing like the normal level for Assen,
In a local shopping centre most cycle-racks are empty and many of those who are here with bicycles are walking rather than riding.
I don't normally go shopping by velomobile, but I did today. It's not nearly full, but this is plenty for us to eat over the next few days.
Main cycle-route on the way home. Snow-ploughs are not quite so wide as cycle-paths so we usually end up with a bit of ice at the sides..
The main routes were mostly OK.
In this case, nearly half the bicycle road was unusable
While here the whole width looked OK, but in some places it was rather slippery. Hence this woman choosing to walk.
Bridges are often particularly slippery because they freeze from underneath. But this one was fine.
Another person who found walking more to her taste than riding.
More nearly empty cycle-parking
Car parks too were nearly empty too. People are put off driving as well as cycling by conditions like this. This one was particularly slippery and dangerous.

A cycle-path which was barely cleared of ice at all, offering very little space for this cyclist to pass the pedestrian (both wanted to use the very narrow surface where there was grip - the pedestrian is not walking on the separate walking path)
Residential street / ice-rink
More treacherous pavements for pedestrians, so these people are on the cycle-path, which at this point is actually OK.
Another walking cyclist.
Completely empty school cycle-parking because the schools are closed. In the past they've remained open and the cycle-parks have been full with much lower temperatures, but that's not realistic with these slippery conditions.
Some paths seemed to be fantastically clear for no obvious reason. This has obviously been swept, but it's not a main route.
Another residential street. Not many cars moved today. Many people have stayed home.
Assen has many cycle-tunnels. Conditions were fine for cycling through this one, and probably so for the others as well as they tend to be on main routes.
After perhaps the slowest 11 km long ride I've ever made, I'm back home. These days it's warm inside without a huge heating bill because we've invested in insulation and saving energy, Our monthly combined gas and electricity bill has dropped to around €50, a huge improvement over the extraordinary amount which it cost to live here when we first moved in.
Later in the day: work to do
There's always work to do at www.dutchbikebits.com and today was no exception. We packed ten parcels for customers in Australia, the USA, UK and here in the Netherlands and as usual took them to the post-office by bike. The usual delivery bike wasn't usable today because of the ice so today's consignment of parcels was delivered by velomobile and trailer:
We use a post-office which is quite close to our home. This video shows the entire distance there and back again by two nearly identical routes.
Later in the day I read the sad news that someone died today in Assen due to the ice. A pedestrian slipped on a street in Kloosterveen, where I cycled this morning for shopping. He fell hard on his head and was fatally wounded. My condolences to his family. Clearing ice from paths, cycle-paths and roads is very important.
