Amsterdam area. Long Track Speed Skating. Waterland-North Ice Tour. Speed Skate It.

Marathons of the Netherlands
Skateways.

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Strap on the speed skates and watch for the officially approved skating tours that crop up north of Amsterdam (a 16 mile route, the Waterland-North)  in 2012).  On the day of the Waterland-North, there were 32 other officially approved tours, including near The Hague.  There is a Royal Dutch Skater's Union, the KNSB.  Apparently a single such tour near The Hague drew some 70,000 skaters, see article by Matt Steinglass, Why the Dutch Love to Get Their Skates On, in the Financial Times at http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/2/6ea81714-56f2-11e1-be25-00144feabdc0.html#axzz1nV2gxhkV.

Netherlands speed-skating tours. Imagine this frozen, swept, with ruts, skate sharpeners, side food.

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Along the way, find food stands, blade sharpeners, through the polders, and get your card stamped at the end for proof of Feat.
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Its other, perhaps more important than fitness and fun purpose:  civil coordination to get the volunteers out to lay mats for walking around too-low bridges with skates on, sweep the ice, set signs, and cooperate with the Icemaster on safety.
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Many years, the ice remains too fragile. Consider the 125-mile "Elfstedentocht" -- last Skate? 1997. See it at http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-202_162-57373580/ice-not-thick-enough-for-dutch-skating-marathon/

Peterson's Magazine 1865 also featured the sport in sporting mode in the US.

Skating US 1865, Peterson's Magazine vol XLVIII

Devotees in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada also sweep its Rideau Canal for a skateway for some 6 miles, see http://www.canadascapital.gc.ca/places-to-visit/rideau-canal-skateway.
Inline skaters also have their tours, see international destinations as http://www.skatelog.com/events/marathons-fasst.htm

The Afsluitdijk across the sea; and Urk - Island fishing village, now on reclaimed mainland

Afluitsdijk, Commemorative sculpture to 1930's construction, causeway separating Zuiderzee from Ijsselmeer

AFLUITSDIJK

Dykes are everywhere; the largest is the Afsluitdijk in the northern area, finished in the 1930's. It is a 20-mile causeway to Friesland province. It holds back the North Sea (Zuiderzee inlet) from the fresh water lake, Ijsselmeer. Not clear what was saline or not before the dyke, but it appears that it was also saline but not sea-water strength. See the size of it in Afluitsdyk photos at outdoors.webshots.com/album/552587230IKkFdP. The major highway across the dyke is close to sea level - 7-9 meters.

It has sluices that flush in and out to maintain the salt that is in the Ijsselmeer, for ecological reasons; and to adjust for storms. Would Mississippi benefit from the technology? It is a matter of will, not way.

URK- The Island that is now a peninsula

The effect of the dykes, especially the Afluitsdyke and overall reclamation, has been to turn islands into towns on the mainland.

Urk Island Lighthouse, now inland (land reclamation), the Netherlands

Urk had been a remote fishing village, isolated on its own island, in the Ijsselmeer, east coastal area. With the large Afsluitdijk, the causeway across the northern Netherlands, now across from North Holland to Friesland, land is being reclaimed.  Urk, that once was an island with its lighthouse, is now mainland. The lighthouse at Urk is listed at www.lighthousedepot.com/database/uniquelighthouse.cfm?value=2140.

Urk dates from the 900's. See the history of Urk at www.answers.com/topic/urk. One of the oldest Dutch dialects is spoken there. See Urk overview at experts.about.com/e/u/ur/Urk.

Much of the land that had been underwater is now agricultural land. Wikipedia has a comprehensible writeup on these polders at en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polder.

Urk, the Netherlands. Waterfront. Once a fishermen's community on an island, land reclaimed and getting yuppie.