Dress for the conditions
Although there are still a few staunch Kiwis who sail though our New Zealand winter in shorts and Jandals, Europeans know they need the proper gear to keep warm in temperatures that even in the daytime can be well below freezing.
My best friends on my most recent trip were a pair of fur (artificial) lined ankle boots with non-slip soles. I bought them in the end-of-winter sales and they were smart enough not to look out of place on the streets of Prague and Vienna. Worn with a pair of merino-possum socks, I never had cold feet. You could pack kneehigh boots but winter clothing and footwear are heavier and take up more room in your luggage – significantly so.
Hats, scarves and gloves are not optional extras – very few Europeans will venture out in winter without this trio. Because I wanted to take photos I opted for mittens or, for a change, a pair of finger-less gloves that kept my hands warm and meant I could still operate my camera.
Thermal underwear… or not: The problem with these is that although they keep you toasty warm outside, you will rapidly cook inside unless you can easily remove some layers. Unlike New Zealand, where even some restaurants seem to regard heating in winter as an optional extra, everywhere in Europe is well heated – and in some cases, almost too well heated.
A feature of winter travel is the ritual donning of outerwear before venturing into the cold and then putting it all back on again on the way out, and then returning to find missing gloves, scarves left over the back of chairs and so on. This does mean you can still bring lighter, dressier clothes to wear at concerts and restaurants – in fact, if you don’t have some lighterweight clothes you will swelter inside.
If you find sleeping in very warm rooms a problem I’d consider taking a bed sheet. All the hotel rooms I was in only had duvets and in some it was either impossible to open a window or turn down the heat sufficiently. No duvet: cold; duvet: sauna.