Visiting the Christmas Capital of the Country! Winchester :o)

Last Monday we went for a family trip with some lovely friends to Winchester. I was feeling very Christmasy that day and had bought the Muppet Christmas Carol- so spent the whole journey down trying to sing along to the songs- much to Luke's delight! (it was ok though as our lovely friend Rachel LOVES the Muppet Christmas carol and actually knew all the words which Luke approved of! His words: 'it's easier to listen to when people actually KNOW the words Meg!') I'd also bought along my Glee Christmas Cd- but sadly that was not allowed to surface until the journey home! 

I had looked up the local Christmas markets and liked the look of the Winchester one (I also liked the look of the Oxford one but thought we would venture out to somewhere we hadn't been before!) It was TOTALLY worth it! What a stunning city! We were 'ooooo'ing and 'ahhhhhh'ing before we'd even found a parking space!

They had kept all their lights white (which is always a winner in my books) and they were hung in the most beautiful of places. We walked towards the Cathedral hoping to run into the market and stumbled upon the most beautiful parade of trees with lights hanging across them. Of course, we had a photo under them- this is a given.

Beautiful aren't they?! I felt a little bit like a Tangled villager!

 

 

 

As we walked through the streets I was getting VERY excited about how pretty everything was! Even the shop fronts were much prettier than usual! We went down this strange alley with yet another beautiful wooden door that Tim decided to explore.....

...Turns out it was just a bin store! Yes, even the bin store doors look appealing in this city! WE ARE WON OVER!!!! 


We reached the gorgeous Christmas Markets and I wish I had some form of magic wand that could let anyone reading this smell the AMAZING mixture of smells that hit us! Firstly was this GORGEOUS orange and cinnamon stall:

The Cathedral made the most perfect back drop for the whole market and as we moved around the smells just kept coming! From mulled wine to hot dogs (yes, even the hot dogs smelt appealing!) and then more cinnamon, it was all just so scrummy! Sadly, and not appealing at all- the rain came hard and fast while we where half way round the stalls :o( To this day I have not forgiven the BBC weatherman for telling me there would be no rain (or wind!) in Winchester till 10pm that night.....LIES! We quickly whipped around the rest of the stalls- stopping briefly to appreciate the beautiful nativity set that a local School had made!

Check out Baby Jesus' amazing set of new born teeth! And Josephs purple beard! Amazing!

This stall looked stunning all lit up! My idea of heaven!

My poor attempt at a photo of my hunky hubbie at the markets!

Despite the rain, we still had a fun evening and actually, one of my fondest memories of the night was poor Tim trying to hold the umbrella over all of us as we walked with the wind pummelling him! We decided he'd have VERY large arm muscles after that evening! We eventually found shelter in a Pizza Hut (because if you're going to find shelter from the rain, why NOT do it with Pizza?!) and ate scrummy pizza with un-limited salad and drinks! Yummmmmm! Our waiter was......entertaining to say the least! Here is Hollie trying to hold hands with her new bestie Henry! (Holding his hand was last on her list of things to do with him after attempting to poke him, pull him & grab his dummy before anyone is under the miss-allusion that's she's an angel 24/7!!!)

All in all, a lovely evening with good friends. I will definitely be asking  Luke to take me back there for a spot of shopping! There were lots of shops I'd like to become better acquainted with and I am really missing being only an hours drive away from the beautiful Cambridge and all that it offers- but I think Winchester may be able to fill that void for me slightly! So Winchester...we will be BACK!