So that's what you get when you bury your head in an interesting book the whole train ride to Amsterdam without even looking up once out the window. Lost in thought somewhere else when there it was all around you.

By the time the train arrived I was too far north and it was an hour later in the day, meaning that the skies had cleared and the temperature had risen just enough. Nothing out of the ordinary around here.

- Sure is hard to believe?
- What is hard to believe?
- That it snowed so early this year.
- Snowed?
- Yes, snowed - didn't you notice? (look of astonishment)
- Sorry, I didn't.

Turns out that it had snowed fairly hard in the south, and an immense whiteness had blanketed the landscape for as far as the eye could see. Simply beautiful (I could only imagine).

- The earliest since way back in the nineteen twenties or so.
- Yes, pretty amazing.
- Are you sure you didn't notice it?
- I'm sure, very sure.

I had missed it because I was reading some boring book.