Weihnachtsmarkt

When did the rest of the world go mad for German Christmas markets? We’d never heard of them and then, wham, suddenly they’re everywhere. They even have one at Lower Loxley in The Archers.

I might be wrong and they’ve always been around but, seriously, I only started noticing them the last few years. Don’t get me wrong, they are seriously festive and add a certain Christmas feel to wherever they happen to be, particularly if there’s an ice rink nearby as well.

There’s an ice rink at Winchester, just behind the cathedral. It sits in the middle of the German Christmas market. This market has been going since 2006 and is apparently ‘…one of the best in Europe‘. We went to Winchester today to visit it. On Breakfast this morning, we were reliably informed that 11 million people would be out shopping today. I’m pretty sure they were all in Winchester.

Wandering around the market

Mirinda had her hot chestnuts straight from an Italian hot chestnut seller while I went for a German bratwurst, dreaming wistfully of Munich, from a not so German bratwurst seller. The sauerkraut was very nice though and made up for the below par sausage. Mirinda said the chestnut skins slipped off perfectly, providing her with outstanding chestnuts. I wouldn’t know about that – I hate chestnuts.

Before we arrived at the market, we had our usual wander by the river and passed Wolvesley Castle, stopped and chatted to the ducks for a bit and generally wondered how nice it would be to live in Winchester…

Looks like dinner to me...

There were quite a few people wandering the back streets who had obviously grown weary of the crowds and ventured further afield to find some (relative) solitude near the place where Jane spent her last days. We thought it was a bit more crowded than usual but that was nothing when we reached the market.

It was pretty much impossible to walk against the general tide of people so we simply followed the flow and travelled clockwise round the whole thing. It was lovely seeing all the happy delighted faces; even the elves were happily wandering around with backpacks full of mulled wine to chase any chills away.

Glühwein against the cold

After wandering around the entire market almost twice, we continued on around the cathedral and towards the high street. We love Winchester high street, the butter cross, the lack of traffic, Reeve the Baker and coffee shop…where we stopped for a coffee/hot chocolate and the nicest mince pies I’ve had in a long while. Seriously good pastry and the mince wasn’t too sweet. Highly recommended.

It was then back out into the cold to enjoy the Christmas lights and remind ourselves that we’ll probably be wandering around a Christmas market this time next week as well.

Glittering tiaras