Gray sky and snow-covered ground in early February. Succumbing to the winter cycle, rows of thin trees - young willows, perhaps - were dead, barren of leaves. Then, against the pale backdrop of nature, a blue building appeared. Ornate, old-world features revealed this was no simple building. It was a palace. Whose? I have forgotten. But the sight of the blue palace emerging from the barren landscape will always be burned into my memory.