Christmas market

Last night I went for a browse around the German Christmas market set up on Parkers Piece. The smells of stollen and mulled wine were lovely, but the atmosphere was rather flat, probably because it was only 6pm on a Wednesday evening. It made me very homesick for Manchester, where there's been a German market every December that I remember, filled with shoppers and children and people milling around with mugs of hot German-style toddies. My friend always enthuses about the German Xmas market in Manchester, he says it's massive, and the highlight of his trip to Manchester. I don't know if it's that big, to me it always seems cosy, but the atmosphere is always great.

Maybe on a weekend, or later in the evening, the Cambridge market is busier and more holiday-like. I wonder if it's also to do with people tightening their belts this year and spending less. With the strong Euro and unusually weak GB pound, the gifts and crafts at the stalls were on the expensive side. Perhaps luckily for me, as there was a stall that was selling really exquisite music boxes, with tiny beautifully carved wooden figurines. But with the simplest music boxes starting from £13 and the ones that caught my eye being £43, I think my music box collection will stay this size for now.

Quiet Cambridge