Get your skates on

Borovoe is as charming in the late winter as it was in the late summer, but in a completely different way. It's warm enough to wander, but still frozen over. The lake is a great, open space with snow compact enough that, if you're careful, you can walk across it.

The lake is swept by gusting, turbulent winds, which first lull you into a false sense of security before whipping up a storm and sending real shivers through your torso and out to your fingers and toes. The loose, powdery snow complies with the wind to visualise its motion. Tumbling, twisting mini-tornadoes appear and disappear across the lake and I feel like I'm on a different planet. They touch-down and dance a muscular dance, getting fatter and thinner, sometimes tying themselves in knots, before petering out.

Skating without skates (probably the next Westlife single).

They've polished a bit of the lake to make an ice-rink. We were without skates so we skated in our shoes and had quite a giggle. 

This bench is somewhat hampered by its surroundings.

The hotel had a big fountain before it, not in its prime in this season, and benches spaced around the fountain, also not in their prime. Is it the weather, or the fact that they sit plank deep in snow, that makes them impractical?

We enjoyed a walk through the woods in the shadow of the mountains. A highly recommended getaway from the city. The wind can be a bit cold though.