Settling for Settle

Life in the Northwest continues the excitement for the Craven Heffalump, as she plodded off to Settle to investigate the Cycling Festival. She'd long held a soft spot for Settle, ever since she'd discovered that it hosted a bottle store which willingly obtained all manner of interesting products, unavailable elsewhere, such as Creme de Cacao (white) and Curacao (blue) and all manner of other cocktail ingredients. Ah yes, Settle was a step above the limited imagination of peach-is-the-only-schnapps, so pervasive elsewhere.

And so, to Settle. The market square was full of stalls, with a tangle of delightful scents wrestling with each other for dominance to the crooning soundtrack of Van Morrison. Most were staffed by authentic citizens of European nations - there were French cheese stalls, German sweet stalls, a Spanish paella stall, Greek stalls selling olives and a Turkish stall selling baklava and Turkish delight. The Heffalump hadn't been aware of Turkey's acceptance into the EU, but was pleased to see it embodied in the marketplace nonetheless - though she did find it more puzzling when she spotted Latin American, Native (North) American and Moroccan stalls too. "I really should have paid better attention during geography lessons," she muttered under her breath, as she sidled up to a French food stall to purchase some garlic prawns.