Thessaloniki markets

Near the end of Aristotelous Square on either side, are the two main markets of the city. They are amazing. We visited a few times. On the right

is the first market

which is dominated by tavernas. We ate at this one (it takes up both sides of the street) once for lunch and then during our last evening - a big regret that we had not discovered this much earlier, as we had such a great time.

The tavernas here are very popular at lunchtime and in the evenings

but look inviting even during the day,

 even when it's in the morning when there's hardly any customers

Fruit and veg are obviously sold here

but what dominates are shops that sell spices and herbs

I spent quite a bit of time here looking at all the herbs some of them known for their medicinal properties

What is Bee Herb? Official name Melissa Officinalis

Aaah! So this is what echinachea looks like

And this is Calendula. I used to take that a lot when I did homeopathy

Just amazing stuff.

Lots of posters for political events all around

We came upon this lovely square, had a walk around, and then re-joined the market

Chairs, wooden spoons, tables

baskets

Pickles, olives, etc

Another taverna

Natural cosmetics. I have seen more natural cosmetics shops in Thessaloniki than anywhere else in the world - they are everywhere

 

We eventually ended up in Aristotelous Square again, walked across 

and entered the second  market

fish 

meat

biscuits, cakes, halva

Greek sweets like kourabiedes

more halva, chocolates

booze

This place was amazing, and such good value. I bought a kilo of melomakarouna (pictured at front) for 5.80 euros a kilo. In our local bakery they sell for 20 euros a kilo. And they were delicious

cheese

more homemade cakes and biscuits

olive oil and beans

clothes and bags

Aaaahhh!!! Such cute suits for little boys

How about that? Face cream made out of donkey milk

A meze bar

So much to see and enjoy!

Another market in the centre is the Modiano market. This is the posh market. Unfortunately, it was closed when we visited - apparently there's been a change of management and it's going to be a few months before it opens again.

A morning in Milton Keynes

The drive from the motorway to Milton Keynes is gorgeous, tree-lined avenue after tree-lined avenue, a real pleasure to see, particularly now that it's autumn and the colours are glorious. And then it continued the same, except that there were buildings on either side and it slowly dawned on us that we were on Midsommer Boulevard, right in the middle of the city centre.

 

Midsummer Boulevard consists of this walkway in the middle, which is for pedestrians and is wonderful to walk along on.

on either side of the walk is the road for traffic, except there is very little

no pavements for pedestrians but signs that say 'pedestrians do not have priority'

buildings, shops and cafeterias on either side

and parking that is free for 3 hours, and which is where we parked.

Milton Keynes is a 'new town'. In the 1960s the government decided that a further generation of new towns in the south east of England was needed to relieve housing congestion in London. Milton Keynes was to be the biggest yet, with a population of 250,000 and area of 22,000 acres.

It was decided that a softer, more human-scaled landscape was needed with an emphatically modernist architecture. Recognising how traditional towns and cities had become choked in traffic, they established a grid of distributor roads about 1 kilometer between edges, leaving the spaces between to develop more organically. An extensive network of shared paths for leisure cyclists and pedestrians criss-crosses through and between them. The original design concept aimed for a 'forest city' and its foresters planted millions of trees. Parks, lakes and green spaces cover about 25% of Milton Keynes; as of 2018, there are 22 million trees and shrubs in public open spaces.

The urban design has not been universally praised. In 1980, the then president of the Royal Town Planning Institute, Francis Tibbalds, described Central Milton Keynes as 'bland, rigid, sterile and totally boring'.

This was our first time in Milton Keynes and we had come to see an exhibition of the works of Vanessa Bell

at the MK Gallery

which is next to the theatre.

After seeing the exhibition we decided to wander around and came upon this sculpture

Dangerous Liaisons by Philip Jackson, 1995, (bronze).

We then started exploring the area around and behind the gallery

Ah! Two people - the first we had seen since we started exploring

eerily empty - I looked in the restaurants and it was the same thing, no one there

12th Street beckoned

When we realised that the large, long building in the distance was a shopping arcade, we turned around

interesting sculptures

back on Sommerville Boulevard - still no one about

except these two women who were crossing the road below the sign that reads 'pedestrians do not have priority' and we followed them on the other side of the wide avenue

first proper signs of human life - people sitting out at Costa

all along this side of the boulevard shopping arcades: not surprising as the guy in the gallery had told us that this is the city centre and where the shops and restaurants are. We are not interested in window shopping or shopping for that matter, 

so we decided to go and explore the market that we had seen when we parked the car. It's a mixture of outdoor

and indoor market

and it's fabulous. You can find anything you want here: clothes

household textiles

cosmetics

household stuff

gardening

grocery stores which were a real pleasure to wander around as they sold stuff I had never seen before, stuff I had not heard of before

fruit and veg

these are the biggest pomegranades I have ever seen

aloe vera leaves - not easy to find

things that I had to ask what they were

and lots of stalls of food to take out or eat there.

We decided on this place, sat down, had a tasty dish each and then it was time to head on home.

I loved the market and the exhibition was very good indeed, so it was a good day. I found Milton Keynes bland, alienating and alienated. You did not get the sense of community you get in other towns, even ugly ones, there was nothing there - cold, impersonal, not much life.