Ice skating a big hit in Lynn
ICE skating in the open air on a dark cold winter night, all wrapped up in scarves and gloves, is a wonderfully Christmas-like image.
And the creation of an opportunity to do it throughout the festive period in Lynn is wonderful.
From early evening on the opening night on Friday the newly-installed rink on Tuesday Market Place was packed with young people and a thick ring of spectators.
The background hubbub of a spattering of market stalls, live music and smell of chestnuts roasting gave it a lovely feel.
The rink itself was bought earlier this year as an all-weather mobile attraction for West Norfolk and until now has been in situ in Hunstanton. The shiny white boots, with slightly confusing buckle-up fastenings, all still look appealingly new.
Of course, the rink is not actually real ice. The booking website www.ecoiceskate.com hails it the "environmentally friendly ice skating experience", "a new concept in skating surfaces which provides a completely flexible alternative to real ice".
It uses a synthetic product which does not require cooling. Having inelegantly stuttered my way around a number of ice rinks, I have to conclude this "wonder product" not an entirely equal replacement for old-fashioned ice. At times it feels like your skates are making more progress grooving into the surface than gliding across it and it took somewhat more effort for the deeply amateur skater, such as myself, to get a bit of a rhythm going. As one of my companions put it, "it's a bit like skating on someone's lino".
Having said that, the primarily-teenage contingent on the rink, which holds 50 people at a time, were still managing to challenge each other to some pretty impressive end-to-end speed records and a three-year-old spun past and made us all look inadequate.
Overall I had a wonderful time on the rink. My dreams of romantically drifting across New York's Central Park rink are not quite satisfied, but a really enjoyable evening nevertheless. My final word being – come on you adults, remember this one is not just for the kids.
The rink is in Lynn until Sunday, January 6. A session is one hour and costs 4.95 per person.
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Weather for King's Lynn
Saturday 04 February 2012
Today
Sunny spells
Temperature: -2 C to 2 C
Wind Speed: 17 mph
Wind direction: South
Tomorrow
Light sleet showers
Temperature: -2 C to 2 C
Wind Speed: 7 mph
Wind direction: South west
