On tour in the West Midlands

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Hi everyone,

Back to Birmingham for a couple of minutes - right you've got the general idea about the city: a multicultural, modern and commercial city. Not an awful lot to see, but the most interesting feature is its centrality.
Birmingham should be, if I'm not mistaken, the main city in the West Midlands. With three railway stations, you can go pretty well where you want to go in a few hours, at least England and Wales.

I did not take enough advantage of this centrality to travel around - unfortunately. For private reasons, I just used each free day or week end to go back to Paris!
Still I had the opportunity to see some places in the Midlands. Here's an idea:

- Coventry, a quite famous city in a historical perspective. The main attraction is the cathedrale of Coventry, half destroyed by the Luftwaffe during the war - with an interesting sculpture inside "Reconciliation statue" - the same as in Hiroshima, in memory of the Second World War
Nothing more to see, I'm afraid. Loads of shops in this little Birmingham

- Warwick, interesting example of English castles, with its huge and very touristic castle. I visited it during spring time - not the best time, honestly - and already there were quite a lot of tourists. In the summer, they organise, apart from the usual inner visit of the castle, huge festivities outside, in a medieval style - if you know le Puy du Fou, in France - it should be quite the same.

- Stratford-upon-Avon, more British, you die... This is the very city of Shakespeare!! Who would believe it? I guess everyone, because once you've set a foot in this town, you are assaulted by Shakespearian shops and statues and museums and festivals and theatres... EVERYWHERE!

Apart from this very commercial side - which I didn't like too much - this is a very cute old town, around the river Stratford. The typical rural side of England, with its red bricks houses and its huge parks and ponts and boats on the river.

Along the river, you will see the famous Royal Shakespeare Company - the same building as in London, for those who've been there also. I did not go to the theatre unfortunately, it was one of those things on the "to do" list for a long time until I got back to Paris...
The good side: you can get quite cheap tickets, around five or ten pounds I remember, especially if you're a student. And if you have never seen a play by Shakespeare (like I have), then I guess it is the right place to begin with.
The bad side: Stratford is quite in the middle of nowhere - one and a half hours train from Birmingham city centre, and with the trains stopping at nine PM - so if you really want to see a play and not sleep on a bench, then choose the afternoon show, which begins at three - you will be home for dinner!

Or you can sleep under the Hamlet statue, I guess!

So far - so good. Anyway, I've been back six good months now - and I enjoy Paris ! Was a good experience to be away such a long time, and Birmingham is quite a nice place to live in, after all- I 'm not so sure about tourism, having said this! I would prefer to travel to Scotland or London...

What about next time? Ok, next time I'll go back to another trip of ours - which was in 2006: Roma! Loads of things to say, must think about it first.

So long,

Catarina

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