The German Market

Every Christmas I used to have one of these from my German relatives. I always loved them and it was a pleasant surprise to see them here (well, the goodies!). The hearts brought back fond memories.

I saw lots of good old fashioned wooden toys – very ‘Slow Movement. I compared the homemade clunky wooden toys to the English’s love for ‘Chinese plastic tat’ or toys with ‘Logos’ everywhere. Sometimes it feels that we cannot be bothered to make anything ourselves. We are so taken in with rampant commercialism.

Even when I look at our London Tourist shops, a lot of it is ‘junk’ but if you go abroad, say, to Prague or China, some of the authentic tourist souvenirs can be very beautiful, even though it’s cheap. We English tend to make stuff to throw away. I have travelled a lot and English is the worst place for crap souvenirs. I wonder what tourists think. Saying all that, we do have a lot of funny things which they don’t have!