The Christmas Marketplace

As I've posted before, we always try to add some fun to our NYC doctors' visits, like checking out a specialty shop or going to a museum.  Yesterday, we didn't really have a set destination but knew we'd wander the area around Union Square.  Upon exiting the parking garage, we immediately spotted the telltale kiosks of a festival and I remembered that it was the Christmas Market.  For the time we had before our appointment, we wandered among the stalls:

• sampling salsas and chocolates
• ordering Belgian waffles with gingerbread sauce (speculoos) from Wafels and Dinges and also a variety of Persian soups (vegetable, lentil, and chili), plus the best cookies ever from Rubyzaar (Kashmir with almonds and cardamom: HoiAn with chocolates and espresso) and chewy sweet pastel French macaroons.  
• drinking Gluwhein and hot chocolate
• selecting a precious, brightly-colored, whimsical print of two children flying over the Chrysler Building by an artist named Edie (you can purchase prints at her site)
• having a mini-hand spa treatment with Israeli Dead Sea Salt that left my hands feeling so soft (we bought the scrub because it helps with psoriasis and dry skin)
• and just wandering through stalls of knit wear, teas and spices (laid out just like a Silk Road merchant), Celtic and also Tibetan tchotchkes, puppets, toys, jewelery, and so much more, while also people-watching, which is a wonderful sport in NYC

Just a wonderful reminder of why I love NYC (besides, it makes going to the doctor just so much better).