It was one of the last winters in Europe, true winters with snow and ice.  Before the effects of global warming meant that winter simply became a succession of grey skies and well above normal temperatures leading to cool but certainly not cold winters.

A true winter in a country with a long history and the remnants of a baroque culture mixed with the trappings of modernity. Short days, a mournful light, a time of reflection, of wonder; feelings of seasons, of time passing languidly, of the strangeness of life.