by visiting Birmingham (UK)
I’m falling behind in reporting on our trip to London and a bit beyond and to Paris. I’ve been so busy gardening and watering that by the end of each incredibly warm day I’m too tired and hot to think, plus we’ve had problems with our internet connection (now solved). If you are a new reader and wish to read the earlier posts about our recent trip, just click on the theme Travel on the side bar or here.
Our first trip outside London was to our son-in-law’s hometown of Birmingham. We took the train with our daughter’s family on a Saturday morning, the first of several train trips on this vacation. We found the train services excellent in the UK and it’s so much more relaxing than trying to drive the roads on the wrong side! Even though I had a book along and family to chat with, I frequently fell into a kind of meditative state gazing out the window, enjoying glimpses through trees of a green and pastoral English countryside, speckled occasionally with sheep, cows or horses.
In Birmingham we met J’s family, including a new family member, his sister’s adorable four month old boy, our granddaughters’ first cousin. Except for the baby of course, we’ve met them in the past on their visits to Vancouver. Now it was wonderful to see them again and to be shown around their city. Walking around the centre, fascinated by the old architecture, sometimes mixed with the new, we covered several very large and attractive squares and broad car-free pedestrian-only walkways. (This reminded us how much we’ve loved this in other European cities, and I wish Vancouver and other Canadian cities would do this.) We were pleasantly surprised how spacious and clean everything felt after busy London, even though there were still lots of people around. We did pass through a couple of malls that were pretty much the same as those in North America, places that I’m not too fond of.
An exciting surprise for me was to meet Antony Gormley’s Iron: Man (colloquially referred to as The Iron Man), a statue in Victoria Square (top right photo), the first time I’ve seen one of his sculptures! Second surprise was to see the canals, so lovely with their boats! Apparently Birmingham has more canal mileage than any other city in the world.
I also learned that the Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery has a very large collection of pre-Raphaelite art, which we had hoped to see on Sunday morning. However we neglected to note that it does not open until 12:30 pm on Sundays, when we went in for lunch…and then had to catch the train back to London. Too short a visit, but delightful! Next time I’d love to see more of the heritage buildings and the city parks and the art, of course, as J’s parents are so knowledgeable about their city! Too many photos to share, but here are just a few of our favourites.
June 13, 2009 in Culture, Travel by Marja-Leena
I’m glad that you got to see a Gormley for real. I find them quite special. Wonderful that you managed a substantial glimpse of Birmingham, guided by natives. It makes such a lot of difference to be taken straight to the beautiful heart of places by those who know.
Olga, yes, guides by natives are always the best, especially when the time is short and the city is large. I could have written so much more. Do you know this city well?
No, I know Birmingham only superficially. I have made few visits there, mostly for concerts conducted by Simon Rattle when he was conductor of the Birmingham Symphony. Otherwise I have popped in for exhibitions, the most stunning of which was entitled Sting Eye – a selection of contemporary Scandinavian weaving in an former canal-side warehouse.
We have no grand buildings here and little or no public art, so these pix strike my eye as strange. but attractive.
I am cross-eye now from reading about Rome, which is of course one of the capitals of architecture!
Olga, you’ve obviously tasted much of the best in the arts that Birmingham offers. That is something that bigger cities are usually able to offer more than small ones, have you found? Of course, England is densely populated so perhaps the richness is spread out. Canada is so huge and sparsely populated, concentrated in just a few cities along the southern border and mostly in the east.
Hattie, I know what you mean. Even Vancouver is relatively less grand. We’re too young a city to have developed enough grand architecture and public art to compare though there are some great modern examples. But we do have a magnificent setting to make up for it. As do you in Hawaii.
Ah, Rome! I still remember the fabulous two or three days we spent there in 1993, not enough time! I hope you’ll give yourself many many days to explore it.
I’ve just managed to come by for a real, if fairly brief, visit and realized the other time I visited I went straight to your gallery without realizing there was a blog. Now I know and have copied a link so I can return at leisure.
I have looked at these top page posts and was delighted to know England is much as I remember it from the few years I lived there in the mid-60’s. Having been a semi-westcoaster for more than 20 years of my life (6 years in Vancouver, BC) I still miss Europe with its (free) museums, old churches, fountains, plazas and apartments with queer spaces and artist attics. While I was there I took up brass rubbing so travelled by train to many out of the way towns where the pastors and brothers would proudly show me around their precious churches.. even moving entire pews and carpets so I could examine brasses long out of public view. It was beyond fun, an almost sacred series of memories.
Yes, Portland is a bit boring, more so than Vancouver because it’s never really opened up to cross cultural influences. Next stop for us will likely be Halifax. We lived happily in New England for 16 years and I long for the Atlantic, old buildings, a people with a genuine history and most of all, the relative safety of Canada.
It was lovely seeing a photo of you and your blog friends. All the best luck with your garden 🙂
Susan, thanks, I’m glad you are enjoying a bit of my blog. I too love all those same things about Europe though I’ve never lived there.
Sounds like you’ve lived in a lot of places including, surprise, right here in Vancouver! Are you by chance Canadian born as you mentioned parents in Toronto (on your blog) and especially because you are now considering Halifax for your next home? Eastern Canada certainly has more history than out west, I look forward to someday exploring it all. As for Portland, is that where you are right now? I’ve heard it often compared to Vancouver, as is Seattle.
In fact, I know another blogger by the name of Susan who lives in Portland. We met once when she was visiting Vancouver. Sadly she’s no longer blogging.
Since you ask, and since I’m here before returning to a project.. I was born in England right after WWII and my parents moved to Canada (25 miles north of Toronto) when I was nearly 7. I returned to England for work, art-school and wandering Europe when I was 18 and returned to TO 2+ years later. By then I was too untamed (or not yet mature enough) to manage university for long. Had a son at 24, moved to Montreal for 2 years during the season of mailbox explosions and then moved with friends to Vancouver. After 6 years I’d fallen for an American who’d entered Canada after having a philosophical disagreement with a customs agent who officially deported him. We moved to Providence, RI where we stayed for 15 years and 15 years ago came here to Portland. Only superficial climate and geological similarities in the 2 US cities provide a comparison with Vancouver.
That’s not really that much moving all things considered.. but maybe a bit more than most.
Susan, you have moved around a lot. Sounds like a colourful life and material for those wonderful stories and illustrations at your Adventures, Ink blog which I’ve been dipping into with great pleasure!
Well I am impressed with Birmingham! For a British, non-Brummy, native, it has tended to have a less than glamorous image; Midlands, little that is pre-industrial revolution, people with funny accents and a city centre with much 1960s building and fairly grim, and the canals you mentioned fallen into disrepair, dirty and rough. Apologies to any Birmingham people, but that was rather how it seemed, but I haven’t been there for probably 15 years at least, and I’d heard they’d made some really good improvements to it, which your photos clearly show. And of course, as you say, good guides who know their way around make a huge difference.
(I loved the London street furniture too!)
Lucy, I had heard the same things about the Birmingham of a few decades ago. I’m told that maybe too much of the older architecture got torn out to make way for the new, but what I saw looked very nicely restored. Sometimes the new and old clashed, to my eye, surely that’s challenging too. We only saw the centre, there may well be less attractive areas as there usually are in most cities.