The recent snows that have blanketed the Netherlands, snarled rail service and canceled hundreds of flights have also been the opportunity for some friendly snowman competition.
The new (and returning) champion is the village of Espelo, where 60 volunteers worked day and night to pile up the snow, new and old, to make a snowman 16 meters tall, eclipsing the previous record of 12 meters set the previous week by villagers in Staphorst. The snowmen in both cases aren’t pure white because they’re not all the freshest snow.
Until last week, Espelo had held the record for 25 years; they didn’t wait long to snatch it back. The Espelo team’s leader told Dutch broadcaster RTV Oost “We will definitely have a few beers for this!”
