Just a few weeks ago it looked like winter was on the run in the Czech
Republic - now it is back with a vengeance. It happens that I'm visiting, the snow - covered town of Pelhrimov, a town I've been
to before, but never like this. Tires spin hopelessly as an old Skoda car
tries to pull onto the road; crowds stand huddled as they wait for a
morning bus, and on the town's main square: boots crunch on the snow as
locals cross in front of the famous rows of Baroque Burgher's Houses, like
so many mysterious figures in something of a Breugal landscape.