Somewhere along the three hour journey from Dunham Massey to Manchester the trees and fields and open landscape was replaced by brick, graffiti, industrial type stuff and a towering cityscape. Back in a chilly Manchester that’s glittering like never before.

A quick costume change before heading up into the labyrinth of Christmas markets. A whole world has sprung up since we were last here, colour and light and wooden chalets dishing out bratwurst, strudel, mugs of gluhwein – actually pretty much any liquid with a mulled label attached. Other than road signs and familiar shop fronts in the wings, it was more Bavarian (a region in southeast Germany Sar) than northwest England. The seasonal spectacle is in it’s 15th year and managed to pass us by for 14 of them. We flew off to Prague for a Christmas fix, when it was right here in good old Blighty all along.

The trams  are…