Noticing that this year's first Christmas market starts in Birmingham in early November(!), whatever you might think about ‘Festive Season’/Christmas/Winter markets and craft fairs, coming soon are a few ideas for late Autumn trips from Chinley...

By no means everyone enjoys pre-Christmas shopping, lots of people would prefer to say "No thanks", or „ Nein, Danke”  to a glass of oversweet, overpriced  Glühwein, many people are dismayed at the environmentally unfriendly aspects of  crowded markets serving food on  disposable trays….

Mindful of this, some markets now make huge efforts to be organised in a more sustainable, environmentally-friendly manner (the UK has two places in the top 10 in one survey), some try hard to be 'authentically German', and some destinations are mainly of interest for the iconic nature of the venue itself.

As people often like to take a short break in mid/late Autumn, two posts will focus on European markets, one in Germany, one in the Netherlands; two features are however common to all of these posts – firstly you could travel there mainly by train from Chinley (although two involve a sea crossing!), and secondly, all are events which take place on more than one date in mid/late Autumn.

Included here btw is a link to a Guardian article from 2023 where the author would prefer it if we had nothing to do with such events!