Once again, my girls weren't tempted by our outing, so Mike and I spent Friday at the Christmas market in Bury St. Edmunds while the girls were in school. I just love when Mike takes a day off work so we can do a little day trip by train.
Bury St. Edmunds is such a cute town for exploring. I love the carless streets, little shops and pretty buildings.
I've mentioned to Mike before that all adults in Britain seem to have full-time employment except for me and the retired folks. This Christmas fair crowd is just another little piece of evidence.
We were interested in trying out some of the foods for sale. However, we weren't tempted by the pork scratchings. Apparently, similar to pork rinds, deep fried and salted, then eaten cold.
Another of the interesting food selections. This was just a wrap sandwich with duck meat. We were more leaning towards the German sausages (Mike) or the Danish pancakes (me), except right around lunchtime a little storm blew in. We weren't prepared for the rain and cold (I know, crazy when you're in England. We'd been lulled into a false sense of security due to the week of sunshine and relatively balmy temperatures - high 40s!), so gave up the street food in favor of an indoor, heated cafe.
One of the many knitting shops in town had this cute Christmas display.
To be honest, I'm not sure what he's supposed to be dressed as, but he does look festive.
Most of the stall keepers were dressed in some kind of period costume. Not of any particular, consistent era that I could tell. This gentleman looks turn of the century, Sherlock Holmes-ish, while others looked more of an era 100 years or more earlier.
Part of the stalls were set up in the town's assembly room. Isn't it pretty?
Mike in the assembly room.
I went to the market all set to take lots of pictures of the wares for sale, but actually didn't find much that was very tempting to me. We give Bury St Edmunds high marks for location, size and atmosphere, but preferred Ely Cathedral market's shopping offerings.
I would much rather do my Christmas shopping there than at the mall - I guess it is lucky for everyone that I live in Manson instead of Bury St. Edmunds, because I don't think Joe would like pork scratchings as much as Reese's santas in his stocking ;)
ReplyDeleteLooks like such fun. It would be nice to stroll through the picture-book streets. I agree with Shannon that shopping looks better than fighting the crowds on Thanksgiving night and Black Friday. I wish everyone would protest the early openings on Thanksgiving night. But, of course, Kristie and I were out there with the rest of them, standing in the long lines.
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