York Christmas Markets

We went over to York at the weekend, on a very cold and misty morning. I am kicking myself now for not getting my camera out on the journey, just to get reference shots, as the fields alongside the A64 were really inspiring (more on that in a future post) – some almost a total white out with spindly trees poking out the mist.

I did get this picture from Lendal Bridge, which shows it well.

York, unsuprisingly, was rammed. We had a look in various shops, before heading to Fenwicks and Flying Tiger. Fenwicks was a little dissapointing, as their Christmas decorations seem to have continued the trend of tat (shiney Christmas buger, anyone). Flying Tiger did what it does, an was quite good for Stocking Fillers and a sketchbook and some watercolour paper which I will try soon.

A quick trip to Primark to find gloves also furnished me with the softest jumper ever, and a shirt I wanted last year but could not find to fit. Happy Days. But not really anything could not find in Leeds…

The market was stressful. The stalls are fairly as expected, the usual jewelry, cheese, mead, pretty shiney things. I guess the atmosphere is never as good in the light, but I am pretty sure last time I was there the stalls faced inwards creating a market square, rather than out to the streets. But I suspect that is crowd control.

The Minster bells were ringing for a very long time, which was great from a distance but a little opressive close up…

We had to escape from the centre a little to even have a chance of sitting down for a drink. The less said about The Gillygate Bar the better. We resorted to Thomas The Baker for lunch.

We joined the queue (yes, queue) for Käthe Wohlfahrt, this had to be done I guess. This is not a cheap shop and to be fair some of the Germanic decorations are plain weird, but it is a sight to behold, and with quality does come service.

After a while it did start to become too much with the incessant crowds. We retired to The Maltings who seemed to be running a quite selective “we’re full” policy, and while busy was a welcome break.

I’ll just leave with this shot down Lendal with the sadly closed Banks music shop, which had been in trading since 1756 – this is sadly the way of smaller music and art stores.