Saturday, November 30, 2013

Bakewell Christmas Market 2013

The original plan for today was that my friend Justin would be joining me for a day out to Bakewell.; but he had to cancel at short notice. I hadn't put up any sandwiches or planned a route for a walk and so I enjoyed a day wandering around the alleyways and courtyards of Bakewell on my own, taking plenty of photographs in the bright sunshine.

As soon as I got off the bus I headed for the river where I took plenty of pictures of the old bridge; it was well lit by the low sun.


I then visited the toilets to enjoy the Christmas decorations.


I knew the Local Farmers' Market Shop is nearby and so popped in there to get myself a treat; a rabbit pie and a game pie.


I'm not sure how local some of the produce actually is though since I noticed all sorts of exotic food on sale there.

I spent the next hour just wandering and idling around the town. There are a lot of beautiful courtyards in Bakewell, which I wanted to photograph. Unfortunately, even though it was a sunny day, the courtyards remained in shadow all day - this is the only decent photo...and I can't work out which courtyard it is.


There are a lot of interesting independent shops but it seems that the largest retail premises in town are now occupied by Costa Coffee, fortunately located down a side street right on the edge of the main retail area.








It was then time to have some fish and chips and eat them down by the river. There were a lot of birds there, all expecting to be fed some scraps, one particular hunch-backed gull was very noisy...and very persistent. It was unsuccessful with me, I ate absolutely everything that was in the box.

Despite there being no snow it was still a lovely Christmassy atmosphere; every building was festively decorated and lit up, and there was music everywhere - the most notable being the singing and dancing animatronic Father Christmas and the undertaker wearing a Santa hat, who was cranking his barrel organ whilst staying in character...completely morose..

I returned home an hour before I'd intended to because it was getting very busy. Even at the earlier time there were still over a dozen people waiting for the bus. One particular men seemed quite distressed; as he got on the bus and showed his ticket or pass to the driver he asked, "Will this get me out of this Hellhole?"

I've never heard Bakewell described this way before. 

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