The skating journey from Broek to The Hague

The skating journey from Broek to The Hague is at once a test of youthful endurance and a guided passage through the waterways, winter customs, and social world of Holland. The boys’ route depends on more than their strength on skates: dikes, sluices, canal maintenance, wind, and ice traffic shape where they can travel and how safely they can do so. Their arrival at The Hague brings the promise of warmth and family hospitality; their return to Broek turns the long excursion into a shared homecoming.

Route and Dutch Infrastructure

The excursion moves through a landscape in which water is both road and threat. Canals carry the skaters across the low country, while dikes and sluices keep water from overwhelming it. Along the straight canal, bare willow rows mark the banks; above the surrounding land, a carriage road runs along the great dike that holds back the Haarlemmermeer. On the ice, skaters share the route with brown-winged iceboats, push-chairs, and small sleds propelled by iron-pronged sticks. The scene makes the frozen canal feel less like an empty expanse than a busy public thoroughfare.

At Halfweg, the boys leave their skates to cross the complicated junction where the IJ and Haarlemmermeer meet. Lambert van Mounen explains that the river stands five feet higher than the land, making strong dikes and sluice gates essential. The sluices are not merely points of interest: they are working safeguards against an immediate flood. The spring water is also used by Haarlem’s bleaching works, while Lambert adds a local, practical detail from his own experience: the lake contains exceptionally large eels. In this stop, engineering, industry, and everyday knowledge occupy the same stretch of water.

The journey also passes through a system maintained by people as well as structures. Guards stationed at intervals clear rubbish and other obstructions from the canals in winter; after snow, they sweep the surface before it freezes into a rough, dangerous layer. The boys sometimes climb among boats locked in the ice, only to be spotted and ordered down. Their freedom to roam therefore rests on regular public labor, and their play repeatedly meets the limits imposed by safety and maintenance.

Windmills provide a broader measure of the work required to keep the country habitable. Holland is said to have at least 9,900 large mills, with sails from eighty to 120 feet long, used for many tasks but chiefly to pump water from lowlands into canals and guard against inland floods. Their reported yearly cost approaches ten million dollars. Newer mills can turn their sails to catch a faint breeze and draw them back when a strong wind threatens. Such details enlarge the boys’ skating route into a lesson in a country where movement and settlement depend on continual adjustment to water and weather.

Fatigue and the Journey’s Reversal

The outward and return legs are not effortless feats of speed. On the way back, the company is tired enough that the prospect of failing to skate all the way between Broek and The Hague matters to the boys. Carl Schummel dismisses the need to rest, saying that they can spend the night in Leiden, but Peter van Holp insists that Jacob Poot’s wishes should decide the matter because Jacob started the excursion. The discussion makes the journey a test not only of stamina but of how the group treats its most exhausted member.

Jacob is soon too weak to continue skating. The boys give him schnapps, which restores a little color and brings him round enough to open his eyes, but there is no question of his skating farther that day. They must find another way to get him to Leiden. Though each is privately tempted by the thought of riding in an iceboat, they resolve not to leave Jacob behind. Peter hails passing boats, but one crew ignores him and the available sleds are already full. The boys prepare to support Jacob themselves and carry him toward the nearest village.

A shabby iceboat finally offers a way forward. It is as much as the boys can manage to lift Jacob aboard; once everyone is in, the skipper releases the sail, lifts the brake, and sits at the stern with folded arms. The wind carries them toward Leiden, and Jacob, now able to answer Ben, says he feels much better. The shift from skating under their own power to relying on a boat makes the group’s dependence on weather and other travelers concrete. Their resolve to stay with Jacob remains, but the means of keeping it changes.

Arrival at The Hague

On the outward journey, the boys are still strong enough to take in the country seats beside the route. Their formal houses, gardens, square hedges, and broad ditches present an ordered landscape; in winter, the frozen ditches shine like ribbons of glass. The boys eat gingerbread as they skate, a small comfort folded into the effort of covering the distance.

When only a few miles remain, Lambert proposes changing course and walking into The Hague through the Bosch. The boys agree and take off their skates. The nearly two-mile wood contains the House in the Wood, sometimes used as a royal residence. In winter, its bare trees stand over ponds frozen smooth, while the sky and the blue seen beneath the ice appear to answer one another. The approach slows the journey at the point when its destination is near, giving the final arrival a different pace from the open, fast-moving canals.

For Peter, the city’s sunset changes the meaning of the destination. He is no longer simply a visitor bent on sightseeing; he imagines himself as an adventurer nearing an enchanted castle, because his sister’s house is less than half a mile away. The prospect of good beds, warm rooms, and proper food matters all the more after the boys’ lodging at the Red Lion Inn has made them appreciate home comforts. The welcome is therefore both the reward for the journey and a reminder that hospitality is measured in ordinary necessities.

Return and Homecoming

On Monday morning, the boys bid farewell to their hosts and begin the return journey. Peter lingers at the door to exchange parting words with his sister. Their leave-taking is contrasted with the different ways the others respond: Ben recognizes the shared meaning of farewells across countries, while Ludwig van Holp accepts his sister’s extra kiss for their mother with some embarrassment. The journey has brought the boys into another household, but its departure also clarifies the bonds that await them at home.

The return continues by skate to Leiden, where Peter makes an errand at the Golden Eagle and learns that Dr. Boekman has left for Broek. From there, the boys pass through the canals toward Amsterdam. Near the city, they join a moving crowd of skaters; the icebreaker has been at work, but enough skating ground remains for them to continue. At the Western Dock, Lambert leads three cheers for home, a custom he has brought from England. Their English cheering draws attention from people on the wharf and turns their arrival into a small public spectacle.

Broek brings the journey’s emotional conclusion. Katrinka Flack, Carl Schummel, Hilda van Gleck, Peter’s friends, and others are waiting on the canal. Peter feels rested at the sight of them, while Ludwig and Jacob are so eager to greet Rychie Korbes that they nearly knock each other over. Annie Bouman is also there, though she does not join Rychie’s group and does not appear as happy as the other girls. The homecoming gathers the excursion’s friendships and differences into one scene: after miles of shared ice, fatigue, and dependence, the boys return to the people who make Broek home.