Next year marks 200 years since the death of Jane Austen. Given she died in Winchester, a special monument has been erected opposite the house she lived in at the end. We saw it today when we drove down to Winchester to visit the Christmas market.
Naturally, given we walked underneath it anyway, we popped into St Swithin’s church where I took this weird panno.
We first visited the Winchester market a few years ago and last week’s trip to Bath obviously inspired Mirinda to go two weeks in a row. Again, it was very crowded. So much so that food was an impossibility unless you felt like queuing for an hour (no exaggeration). Though, having checked out the menus, I couldn’t find any Bratwurst anyway so it would have been a long waste as well.
Rather than enjoying a German sausage, we went for a long wander around the many and varied seasonal offerings on show. Not that we bought much. Actually we only bought a candle that smelled very strongly of cinnamon and a very small bag of freshly roasted chestnuts. The candle was all bobbly and the chestnuts, according to Mirinda, were the best she’d ever eaten though they could have been a bit more generous with the portion.
Just a few of the many stalls
Emerging relatively unscathed from Cathedral Close, we wound up sitting in a cafe looking out on the Winchester Museum. We were right royally entertained by a wedding party posing unconsciously outside.
Through the cafe window so a bit blurry
The bridesmaids (sadly missing from the photo above) were all dressed in long velvet capes with furry collars, looking quite medieval. The whole wedding party drew a lot of public attention. One older lady even shushed the groom aside so she could spread out the bride’s dress properly. I could almost her her ‘tuts’ from our table.
Eventually we headed out to the main street where another market awaited us. We bought some more candles and then, delight of delights, I found a Bratwurst tent! What a Christmas treat. They also had the most interesting sauce delivery system I’ve ever seen. Normally you have to stand shaking the plastic bottles in order to get even a dribble of sauce but these hang upside down and you squeeze the teats for perfect squirts of sauce.
Mmmm Bratwurst…
It was a lovely day, capped off with a booking at the Chesil for our New Year’s dinner.
I will have to check out our Bratwurst stall see if they have the sauce bottles up side down. That will be good fancy 2000 years a long time, told you the markets are good over there wish we had that mulled wine you bought me over here.
Love mum xxxxxx
Readers – They weren’t unconscious you know…
I love the st swithins pik – looks like a round hobbit church
Though now I think of it, hobbits aren’t religious