Dickens Xmas Market

Staying with the Xmas festivities, today we headed over to Rochester Castle for the annual Dickens Christmas Market. Going there mid day on a Saturday,  2 weeks before Xmas is not one of the cleverest ideas as it took me nearly an hour to find a parking space. Fortunately I dropped Tina and the boys off at the castle to save dragging them all around the back roads of Rochester. Anyway the journey was well worth it as the Rochester Castle makes a stunning setting for a Xmas market.

Some of the pictures came out a bit dark, but they give you an idea of what our day was about. To start with here is me and the boys with a giant snowman.

Where else will you find a Carousel in the middle of a Xmas market with a spectacular view of the castle! Of course I had no chance of keeping the boys off of this ride but given it was pretty big and pretty fast, then I had to go on with them (such a shame).

After the carousel we found this sand art stall which was pretty cool. The kids picked a picture which was pre-cut with sticky sections. So they pealed off one section and then poured a coloured sand over it. Then you repeated for the next sections and so on until the picture was complete.

And here is Joshua proudly showing his masterpiece sand art Christmas Tree.

The Dickens market had various brass bands scattered around and also lots of people dressed up in "Dickens" type of costumes. All in all it really made the Xmas theme well.

Here is a brief glimpse of part of the market with the stunning castle as the backdrop. Its not quite a German Xmas market but as close as you will get in this country. So we all enjoyed a Bratwurst sausage roll, followed by some fresh baked mince pies and coffee for lunch.

Again more Christmas type characters walking around the market.

Here are more and the boys at the entrance to the castle doors.

And this is the amazing Christmas tree positioned right outside the Castle entrance.

Look closely to the right of this picture and you can just about make out little Brandon also hiding in his castle arch.

The boys playing with one of the castle guns.

And sitting on top with the castle in the background. Brandon was fascinated with the view over the medway and was really excited about seeing all the boats.

All good things come to an end and with two very tired boys and some knackered parents it was time to walk along the esplanade and see if we could find our way back to where ever I had parked the car earlier today!