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Beatles and Birmingham
Today, it was muuuuuch cooler- cold even- than it had been the first part of the week. I mainly spent time walking around London and just enjoying some Beatles' sites! I ended up buying a warm coat at H&M, too. Thank goodness I did, because it came in handy for the weekend!
Carnaby Street- the place to be in the Swinging 60s. I looked for Austin,
but it seems he was not in today. ;)
I went to this tea shop that was recommended to me by someone I met on the street!
(She was collecting for charity and when she learned I was not from 'round here,
she asked if I wanted some info on where to go!) It's right around the corner
from Carnaby Street and it was well worth looking for! Look at the beautiful teapot. I had a
Japanese green tea, flavored with all sorts of flowers. It was lovely!
"Scones! My scone!" (hehe) My first scone! It was delicious and came with
berry jam and real cream. Holy cow was that cream yummy. I think it's best
to limit this treat to once a month? Ok... once a week!
Rupert Court, 2009
Rupert Court with the Beatles in 1963
Not too many other folks joined us on our journey to Birmingham. This train
took about an hour longer, because it had numerous stops along the way.
Look! Another post box! This time, it was for King George VI.
Digbeth is the name of a an area of Birmingham. The idea was for me to
have my photo taken next to the sign. For many reasons, this proved
too difficult, especially in the crazy cold, windy rain!
Façade of the famous Bull Ring shopping center in Birmingham
Stained glass window inside St Martin's Church
Victoria Square and the Floozy in the Jacuzzi as she's called!
Cool statues and the renovated Town Hall in the background
Inside one of the pubs we went to Saturday afternoon
Police action outside the pub after a fun, old school brawl inside!
Dav, Lee, Stuart and baby Oscar in the park in Birmingham. We went for
a walk Sunday morning and it promptly began raining on us! It was still a nice day out.
After a delicious curry lunch, it dried off and we ventured into the city for a
walking tour led by Dav. Here's the fun tram we took in!
At last! Sunshine after the entire weekend of rain!! View of a
street in Birmingham.
Chamberlain Square
Ozzy! They have a mini walk of fame in the city of people who are
from Birmingham and this is Ozzy's star.
View of some of the renovated canal area.
Carnaby Street- the place to be in the Swinging 60s. I looked for Austin,
but it seems he was not in today. ;)
I went to this tea shop that was recommended to me by someone I met on the street!(She was collecting for charity and when she learned I was not from 'round here,
she asked if I wanted some info on where to go!) It's right around the corner
from Carnaby Street and it was well worth looking for! Look at the beautiful teapot. I had a
Japanese green tea, flavored with all sorts of flowers. It was lovely!
"Scones! My scone!" (hehe) My first scone! It was delicious and came with
berry jam and real cream. Holy cow was that cream yummy. I think it's best
to limit this treat to once a month? Ok... once a week!
After tea and scones, I went in search of Rupert Court, site of a famous Beatles' photo by Dezo Hoffmann in 1963. It looks much the same as it did back in 1963!
Rupert Court, 2009
Rupert Court with the Beatles in 1963
Friday night, we went over to Wimbledon to watch Star Trek. It was very good! A fun way to spend a Friday evening as well (after I made us a delicious dinner!) For the weekend, we planned to go visit Stuart's friends Dav and Lee and their baby Oscar. We were up early for the 8:45 train! Sadly, the weather was just miserable there. Cold, rainy and worst of all- windy. We managed to do a bit of major site seeing with some indoor breaks for lunch (Wagamama! Yea!!) and in the Bull Ring. There was a quartet of women- highly talented [read dressed slutty and showing their ahem.. talents]- playing violins and a cello at one end of the shopping center. I think they were supposed to be attracting attention to the cars behind them, but their rather dramatic way of playing (hair tossing, waving their bows in the air, dancing, etc) distracted from whatever was being sold! No, I did NOT take a photo!
Not too many other folks joined us on our journey to Birmingham. This train
took about an hour longer, because it had numerous stops along the way.
Look! Another post box! This time, it was for King George VI.
Digbeth is the name of a an area of Birmingham. The idea was for me to
have my photo taken next to the sign. For many reasons, this proved
too difficult, especially in the crazy cold, windy rain!
Façade of the famous Bull Ring shopping center in Birmingham
Stained glass window inside St Martin's Church
Victoria Square and the Floozy in the Jacuzzi as she's called!
Cool statues and the renovated Town Hall in the background
Interior of St. Phillips Cathedral
After a couple of very wet hours of sightseeing, we headed to a well-deserved pint at The Shakespeare pub. Dav ended up meeting us there and thus began an afternoon of pub hopping!
The photo below is inside The Old Joint Stock.
After a couple of very wet hours of sightseeing, we headed to a well-deserved pint at The Shakespeare pub. Dav ended up meeting us there and thus began an afternoon of pub hopping!
The photo below is inside The Old Joint Stock.
Inside one of the pubs we went to Saturday afternoon
Police action outside the pub after a fun, old school brawl inside!
Dav, Lee, Stuart and baby Oscar in the park in Birmingham. We went for
a walk Sunday morning and it promptly began raining on us! It was still a nice day out.
After a delicious curry lunch, it dried off and we ventured into the city for awalking tour led by Dav. Here's the fun tram we took in!
At last! Sunshine after the entire weekend of rain!! View of a
street in Birmingham.
Chamberlain Square
Ozzy! They have a mini walk of fame in the city of people who are
from Birmingham and this is Ozzy's star.
View of some of the renovated canal area.Dav told us that Birmingham actually has more mileage of canals than Venice (think length)! It is now a modern bar and restaurant area (we stopped into one place for one last drink before heading to the train station) with high rise flats. There are also some upscale shops and the BBC Birmingham studios here. Once the sun came out, this made for a very pleasant stroll. Sadly, we had to finally get to the train station (where our original train had been cancelled! We caught the next one 20 minutes later). Despite the weather, though, I definitely enjoyed the weekend in a new city with new friends.