Southbank Christmas Market

Last Thursday, Charlie and I made a brief excursion to the Christmas market being held at Southbank Centre.  Christmas markets are a big deal in Europe, but it's more of a continental thing, and as best as I know, properly German.  "Christmas market" always makes me think of the scene that is supposed to be at the base of Piz Gloria, Switzerland, in On Her Majesty's Secret Service.  I think that's the finest Bond movie I've seen, if not the finest Bond.  But I digress.

London has a Christmas market offering near the Southbank Centre.  The Southbank Centre itself is a set of monstrous concrete blocks designed for concerts.  They're fine concert halls, but were constructed at an unfortunate point in the history of architecture.  Again, I digress.

Here are some photos of our visit.  Beautiful views from just across the Lambeth Bridge:

Here's a frozen child on the river walk.

The Eye is impressive and, in my opinion, worth the price of admission.  That's saying a lot, given the price of admission.  Bethie and I went back in 2009.  

The market was quiet due to it being a weekday.  And due to it being really cold.

The cold couldn't keep the Easter Bunny away.

There were roasted chestnuts, which were also less expensive than Paris, but more than Oxford Street.  I wish I could have the space in my brain that's storing this information for something else.

Severed heads make it feel more like a German village.

Crepes make it feel like a French village.

Charlie didn't get a lot out of the experience except for frostbite.  Not really any baby-friendly things to do there.  I wanted to take her on the carousel, but it looked like it may be too fast and may cause me her to be nauseous.

Truth be told, there wasn't really much to the market.  The company was nice, though, and the pleasure of returning to our warm flat made the outing worthwhile.