F.A.O of cazz, aston vanilla, and other brummies...

[piggynose]

I´m a brummy living abroad, but coming to brum with spanish bird in late march for long weekend, where would you recommend i take here?(nothing rude please). i´m considering these places. crooked house, back 2 back houses, barber institute, and of course the balti belt.
where else is a must?
thanx in advance

pn

[joggerjayne]

Wow, is there an ABer called Aston Vanilla ?

That's brilliant!

[VHG]

How long since you have been to Birmingham?

You have to take her to the BullRing shopping centre.

Also the area around the Convention Centre, NIA, Symphony Hall etc. This is a lovely area now, right on the canal, with loads to do. You can see the new huge library that is being built in Centernary Square.

The SeaLife centre in in this area.

Also a short walk along the canal from there is the Mailbox, a fairly new upmarket shopping centre with loads of bars and restaurants at the back, alongside the canal.

You can also see the new Cube buildings which has just been finished, an amazing building (near the Mailbox right on the canal side).

The BBC have their TV studios in the Mailbox as well and you can go round part of the BBC building seeing what is going on.

Also you can pop in the Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery. Even if you you are not that interested in Art it is still a lovely building inside with some interesting galleries in the museum part.

[mickrog]

just keep out of the concrete jungle of the city centre.its an eyesore.......and heres me a brummie lol

[piggynose]

thanx vhg, i know brum like the back of my hand, and know all the places you mentioned very well, and will take her to some of these places. just wanted to know if there was somewhere i´d overlooked. Cost is also important, some places i considered are a bit pricey. eg black country museum.

[piggynose]

i sort of agree with you mickrog, but cant be avoided, especially if she´s going to the bullring(how apt for a spaniard) lol

[cazzz1975]

the black country museum is a good place to go, I found the sea lifecentre to be a bit expensive and not good value for money

sarehole mill, cadbury world, selly manor, severn valley railway, villa park ;) they also have aston manor transport museum across the road and aston hall is a nice diversion (its free as well)

drayton manor park if thats your thang

[cazzz1975]

blakesley hall

[yogi-bear]

Adrian Chiles's house...........and tell him he looks like Benny Hill :0)

[mickrog]

cazz....great suggestions of yours......and maybe the Tolkien tour which of course includes Sarehole Mill

[joggerjayne]

Tolkein Tour ??

But the Hobbits live in Middle Earth ... not the Midl-ands !

[VHG]

>just keep out of the concrete jungle of the city centre.its an eyesore

There are some fine buildings in the centre of Birmingham.

For the last couple of years, since I retired, I have been going round Birmingham looking at the buildings and photographing them.

There are some lovely buildings around Colmore row, around the cathedral, behind the museum and art gallery, and up by the Victorian Law Courts.

And there is of course the council house which would grace any city in Europe and would not look out of place in Rome.

In fact if you look ABOVE the shops in New Street there are some lovely buildings along there as well.

While no great fan of Birmingham (I come from London and moved here 30 years ago) I do think Birmingham has a bad reputation about its buildings when in fact there are some wonderful buildings here.

[cazzz1975]

as cities go, birmingham has an all round bad reputation unfortunately.

[VHG]

>>>as cities go, birmingham has an all round bad reputation unfortunately.

It does, but then most large Northern cities do (I mean North of London).

Cities like Liverpool, Manchester, Newcastle, Leeds etc etc all seem to have bad reputations, even though all of them have fine buildings and fine areas.

[Lydeard]

Aston Hall. Next to Villa ground. Its free.