It's that time of year again, and you always know it when the Christmas market appears in town. This is fast becoming an annual tradition in Manchester, and in the last few years the market appears to be growing. It started in St. Anne's square, migrated to St. Albert's square, then even to the little walkway down the side of Marks & Spencer and Selfridges. It used to be known to a lot of us as the German Christmas Market, but now it can't really be referred to as singular as there's so many of them, plus it can't even be called German as it now seems to have a variety of fairy light-adorned stalls selling all kinds of European food and wares. 
When I visited at the weekend I tried some Swiss pasta with potatoes, known as Alpine... something. It was very good, and even better washed down with a cup of spiced apple cider. There are also stalls selling spiced mulled wine, German bratwurst, pork buns, Belgian chocolates and all manner of handmade gifts. And with all this there's plenty of entertainment, and on this occasion we were treated to a one-man band singing his own particular versions of well-known classics (i.e he didn't always know the words!) What better way to spend a sunday afternoon... Wonderful:
