Thursday 16 December 2010

The Christmas Markets.

I spent this afternoon with my lovely cousin, Sylvia, in Manchester.  The Continental Christmas Markets are on again in the streets and squares of Manchester.

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These markets are very popular year after year and can get very busy as the day goes on. Fortunately Sylvia and I had arranged to meet at 11 a.m. and were able to look round with ease. 

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I bought some beautiful Belgian chocolates from this stall.

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Sylvia had come with a list of goodies she had to buy.  She bought several variations of sausage from this French stall.

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I loved these Norwegian sweaters.

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Here's Syl checking out the leather goods on offer. In particular the red handbags.  She loves red, definitely in particular red shoes.  Always has and probably always will!

We had a lovely time wandering around, stopping off for a coffee break a time or two and nattering away quite merrily all the while.  DSC_7928

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Our last stop was Marks and Spencer's and that was the highlight of the afternoon for me.  We were met by the sound of beautiful music being performed live by two classical singers.  They were Jon Christos and Jenny Williams and we were just in time to catch their last two songs, the last one of which was "You Raise Me Up". That is a song I absolutely love, especially sung by the Irish singer Brian Kennedy.  Anyway this young couple were excellent and you can see them on You Tube here.

The whole afternoon had been a pleasure, it always is spending time with Syl but the unexpected simple pleasure of listening to these two great singers was magical. What's more they were raising money for the charity, MacMillan Nurses and are on a fund raising tour of the UK.

Linking to Dayle's blog A Collection of This and That for this week's Simple Pleasures.

TTFN,

Kathleen.

 

8 comments:

Dayle ~ A Collection of Days said...

Looks like a very pleasant outing. Great simple pleasures post.

Merry Christmas!

Debbie said...

This looks wonderful! I wish we had something like that around here.

Evelyn S. said...

What a delightful shopping opportunity!

Trish said...

Kathleen, it looks like you had a wonderful day at the markets! Thanks for a lovely peek at Manchester. My family has a great-grandfather who came to Australia from Manchester in the 1800s :-)
Have a very happy and holy Christmas! joy in Christ..Trish

Ms.Daisy said...

Kathleen,
I just love the chocolate stall and I know I would be spending my time and money there! :) What a great Simple Pleasure!



~Jean

Susan said...

Hello Kathleen...Thank you so much for the tour of the Christmas markets. Oh, I would so love to go there.

Thank you, too, for visiting my blog and commenting. Loved having you stop by. Please come again soon. Susan

Anita Johnson said...

What beautiful little stores...so much more fun to shop at than a mall. I'll send my mom the link too, she was born in Germany and will love looking at these specialty stores!
Merry Christmas to you! I always appreciate the comments you leave on mt blog. Thank you!

Linda O'Connell said...

Kathleen, Thank you for stopping by my blog. I lve yours, and especially enjoyed the photos of the markets. Merry Christmas