The Laboratory

We hope you've already done something to get into the Christmas spirit! Maybe you've bought your Christmas stamps, or got the giant inflatable snowman out of the loft ready to put up this weekend. We decided to visit the opening night of the Brussels Christmas Market - spread over the whole of the city centre, from the Bourse to the Grand Place to St Catherine's Place. It was a marvellous 24 hours with surprise Canadian dancing (and bison), eating all our Belgian favourites, and looking at fantastic lights and decorations. And it's not long until we visit the Finnish Christmas market in East London - stay tuned!

One of our treats of the year was a holiday in Berlin, a city Adam has visited many times before, and that we went together to in 2006. It's got amazing architecture, on both sides of the city, and has a wealth of things to visit. We were very excited to hear that our dear friend Heidi was visiting Berlin for the first time on a school trip, though we knew that it would no doubt include worthy but depressing sights such as Checkpoint Charlie, the Jewish Memorial, and the Stasi Museum. We hoped she woud have a great time. And she did! Here are two of her great photos: A genuine German market, not one of those fake ones selling gluhwein and wooden ties. This is a model of a church in western Berlin, which was bombed in the war, and now has a modern addition and carillon next to it. Made of chocolate! Thanks for the photos, Heidi!