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.

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. 

I bought some beautiful Belgian chocolates from this stall.

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

I loved these Norwegian sweaters.

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. 

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.