German Style Christmas Market

Evidently German Style Christmas Markets are very popular in the UK and Europe. One weekend of mid December, we visited one in Winchester , 45 minutes drive from Guildford. The market was set in the Inner Close of the magnificent 1000 years old Gothic Style Cathedral of Winchester and was made of over 90 beautiful wooden chalets selling all sorts of nice gifts and foods.

Despite of the rain and cold, people were in high spirit and the air was filled with the aroma of gluhwein and roasted chestnuts. We certainly had a great time exploring the gifts and the different European foods.

 

We are planning to explore some more Christmas markets next year, maybe the Hyde Park one, the Leeds one and the Lincoln Christmas market...

Christmas Lunch

Very untraditional, we had Oxtail Stew for Christmas lunch this year. We found a recipe on the Internet and simply followed it. Despite the length of time it took to cook, it was a quite easy recipe. And above all, it was very tasty! Here is photo of our lunch table:

It may not look that appealing, but the taste was a 1000 times better than how it looks. The sweet potatoes and parsnips were melt inside the stew and only the potatoes and the oxtail survived the 3.5 hours oven "torture".

For desert, we are going to have Belgian Chocolate Pudding. Too full to have it now, we can only show you the packaging (can't open it yet).

Happy Christmas!

P.S.: Guildford felt like a ghost town today as there were hardly anyone on the streets. The ever crowded High Steet was deserted - giving us a great opportunity to look around properly without having to concentrating dodging people.