Swan market Rotterdam, 21-22 December 2013

You might still remember the blog post I wrote about the Swan market in September 2013 (All that delicious food !). I mentioned there that the next edition would be on 27 October. Sadly, that edition was cancelled last minute due to the stormy weather and I, together with many others, was standing in the Museum park looking at the empty space what should have been a bustling market place. To avoid that from happening again, the following, special Christmas edition of the Swan market was held inside of the Fenix loods in Rotterdam. The Swan Market charged €1 per person as the entrance fee to accommodate the move, while it is normally for free.

Picture of the Swan market inside of the Fenix loods.

I didn't take my good camera with me, so only this picture was taken by me. The rest of the pictures were kindly provided by my brother, who is an aspiring photographer besides his normal day job. ^_^

Because it is the special Christmas edition of the Swan market, you could find many Christmas decorations at the stalls. It added more warmth to the otherwise cold industry barn with high ceilings. It was nice that we were protected from the cold wind and possible rain, but I really prefer the outdoor version of the Swan market. It had a more authentic farm fair feeling than the one in this location. I did notice that there were a lot more stalls and variety in goods with different prices (high and low). 

Before I show you the drool-worthy food, I will first start with the cute handcrafts that were sold there.

 Very cute stuffed animals.

Beautiful Christmas baubles

Christmas ornaments

 Artistic birds with very long legs.

 Bird in Santa costume

 Cute felt decorations

Felt mouse and sheep wall decorations

Now, we have finally gotten to the food part.

I couldn't resist getting a large bag of those delicious vegetables chips again. 

(FYI, those are not my hands ^_^)

The picture on the right isn't food, but a bowl of water with colorful, plastic, toy gold fishes and balls floating in it. I have always wanted to play the gold fish scooping game that they have at the summer festivals in Japan and I was very surprised to see it here. For €0.50, you get a small net made of very thin rice paper and you should try to scoop as much toys up as you can. You don't have to worry about crying children, as no matter what, you get to at least take one gold fish home with you. The person that scoops the most up of all the people participating will eventually get a nice gift.

Let's get back to the food again.

Portugese egg tarts

 Dutch caramel waffles made on the spot

 Delicious sweets

Pesto, tapenade, and mayonnaise.

There was also a picture area, where you could take a picture with Santa and a stage with live music again. Moreover, I saw afterwards that there were two stalls collecting food and toys for the local Food bank so that it goes to the less fortunate. If I knew this sooner, I would have taken something with me to give away too.   

The next edition of the Swan market will be on 20 April 2014. 

(If all goes well, outdoors again in the Museum park ^_^)