A blizzard blanketed the Netherlands and the rest of Western Europe on Saturday with snowfalls up to 20 cm in some places, severely disrupting traffic. Train traffic around major Dutch cities of Amsterdam, The Hague, Rotterdam and Utrecht was crippled while air traffic experienced great inconvenience. The weather caused less problems on the road as a lot of people decided to stay home. Dozens of flight cancels or delays were reported across the country as the Eindhoven aiport encountered problems and the Rotterdam airport had to close for a while for incoming and departing flights. Several outbound flights from Schiphol Airport in Amsterdam faced difficulties in the morning because it is snowing a lot in other European countries as well. Air traffic to airports particularly in Spain, Great Britain, Germany and France was therefore limited. Five hundred until a thousand stranded passengers will spend the night at Schiphol airport. Railways were affected, too, especially in central Netherlands. The situation was less chaotic than that of last year's winter, but Dutch railways NS and ProRail can't avoid all of the new problems. Trains were moving across the country with less frequency than normal. The snow also caused inconvenience to other traffic. The roads were slippery, which led to dangerous situations. Because few people decided to hit the road by car there weren' t major problems and even fewer traffic jams than on a normal Saturday. In Amsterdam and The Hague the bus and tram lines were disrupted with buses and trams driving very slowly or not driving at all. Meanwhile, the wintry weather led to traditional Dutch scenes on the ice tracks. The Netherlands is a skating country and once it is possible people put on their skates and enjoy the skating fun outside. Due to the heavy snowfall it was still very dangerous to trust the ice on open water. The fire brigade had to rescue a man on Saturday morning, who was fallen through the ice at a lake near Groningen. The two were walking on the ice when the ice could not hold them anymore. The woman got out of the water by herself, but the 53-year-old man had to be rescued. Police advised people not to get on the natural ice, because the ice thickness is still unreliable on many places. Sports were also affected by the snow. On Friday seven games were canceled in the Dutch second division and on Saturday the Eredivisie match between Excelsior Rotterdam and NAC Breda was postponed because the field was unplayable due to heavy snowfall. It will remain snowing in the east of the Netherlands and the roads are expected to get more slippery. With the expected temperatures on Sunday all above zero degrees Celsius, the Dutch have to wait for more fun on the natural ice. 