Your favourite holiday location.

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Rob Houghton
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Re: Your favourite holiday location.

Post by Rob Houghton »

Eddie Muir wrote:If what you say is true, that’s really sad. I haven’t been into Birmingham for a few years, but I’ve always had rather a soft spot for the city. :D
Actually, the city isn't too bad in the main area - around Victoria Square, and The Bull Ring shopping centre etc -
and where I live in Kings Norton is also very good - even when our refuse hadn't been collected for six weeks + our roads were still okay - but some areas had rubbish bags piled up a few feet high.

We are now having our rubbish collected fortnightly - which is an improvement - but hopefully we will be back to the usual weekly collections once the bin strikes are finished.
'Oh voice of Spring of Youth
hearts mad delight,
Sing on, sing on, and when the sun is gone
I'll warm me with your echoes
through the night.'

(E. Blyton, Sunday Times, 1951)



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Eddie Muir
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Re: Your favourite holiday location.

Post by Eddie Muir »

We have our rubbish collected weekly here in Brighton. A fortnight is far too long to wait to have refuse taken away. I hope you get your weekly collections back when the bin strikes are over, Rob.
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Re: Your favourite holiday location.

Post by number 6 »

Eddie Muir wrote:Have you been to Rome, Number 6?
Oh! I thought your visit was recent, Eddie! :oops:
No, I've never been to Rome, but I'd love to go one day. I'm fascinated with Roman history & I've always wanted to visit the coliseum & the Forum, etc. Then on to Pompeii & Herculaneum. They're all still on my bucket list. Maybe one day, eh?! :D
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Re: Your favourite holiday location.

Post by Eddie Muir »

I only mentioned our visit to Rome in response to Floragord’s post, Number 6. It was such a memorable holiday. I hope you manage to visit the wonderful one day. :D
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Re: Your favourite holiday location.

Post by Courtenay »

I've only been to Birmingham once, and only to the middle of the city, not the suburbs, but I remember being pleasantly surprised... I had picked up the impression (from afar, over the years) that Birmingham was an unsightly industrial wasteland, so I was delighted to see the city centre had many fine buildings and was really very nice to walk through. I particularly enjoyed the art gallery.

Very sorry to hear about the bin strike — I'm glad things are improving. I did see a heartening video from the BBC about a volunteer group who've been picking up the garbage and also offering charitable help for people in need: Birmingham's bearded heroes

Rome sounds amazing — another place that's on my must-get-to-one-day list! :D Glad you had a fantastic time, Floragord, and good to hear about others' holidays there as well.
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Rob Houghton
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Re: Your favourite holiday location.

Post by Rob Houghton »

Yes - as a true 'Brummie' born and bred here - although Kings Norton is five miles from the city centre and almost across the boundary into Worcestershire - I'm actually very proud of the city, and it has improved a great deal over my lifetime, in terms of cleanliness and architecture. there are many great old buildings too, like the town hall, the Council house and the churches etc. Plus the new library, which has won awards.

the art gallery and museum is excellent - with lots of great things to see - even a mummy! ;-) It also houses the most important and extensive collection of Pre-Raphaelite art in the world, with many paintings by Millais and Rossetti.

Its also full of history and famous names - The game 'Cluedo' was invented here, the vacuum cleaner was invented in Birmingham, and it had the world's first professional football league. Julie Waters was born in Bearwood, there's Cadbury's, Tolkien, Thomas the Tank Engine was written by rev Awdry, vicar of St Nicholas church, Kings Norton, plus many celebrities were born in Birmingham, such as kenny Baker (Star Wars), Bev Bevan, Alfred Bird (of Bird's custard) Ali Campbell, Barbara Cartland, Neville Chamberlain, Trevor Eve, Sid Field, Tony Hancock, Nigel Mansell, Martin Shaw, Toyah Wilcox, Roy Wood, and many, many more! :-D
'Oh voice of Spring of Youth
hearts mad delight,
Sing on, sing on, and when the sun is gone
I'll warm me with your echoes
through the night.'

(E. Blyton, Sunday Times, 1951)



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Re: Your favourite holiday location.

Post by Anita Bensoussane »

Interesting, Rob. It's years since I went to Birmingham but if I go again my top priority will be the Museum and Art Gallery (John Everett Millais is one of my favourite artists). Cadbury World is high on my list too!
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Re: Your favourite holiday location.

Post by sixret »

Yes, interesting, Rob. I remember my friend had told me that there is a place in Birmingham that sells jewellery. So many jewellery shops at one place. She has gone there several times. So whenever someone says Birmingham, the jewellery will conjure up in my mind. :lol:
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Re: Your favourite holiday location.

Post by Moonraker »

I find it hard to believe that in a thread entitled Your Favourite Holiday Location, Birmingham is in so many posts...
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Re: Your favourite holiday location.

Post by Courtenay »

:lol: :P Well then, perhaps we could change the subject to, say, Slough. It's just been named as the "best place to work and live" in the UK, you know (although they don't say anything about holidays there)... :mrgreen: :wink:
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It was a nuisance. An adventure was one thing - but an adventure without anything to eat was quite another thing. That wouldn't do at all. (The Valley of Adventure)
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Rob Houghton
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Re: Your favourite holiday location.

Post by Rob Houghton »

sixret wrote:Yes, interesting, Rob. I remember my friend had told me that there is a place in Birmingham that sells jewellery. So many jewellery shops at one place. She has gone there several times. So whenever someone says Birmingham, the jewellery will conjure up in my mind. :lol:
Yes - that's 'The Jewellery Quarter' - which is an area just outside the city centre, with many, many jewellery shops, and many where they actually make the jewellery too. . :-)

Nigel - Birmingham is a great place for a holiday!

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Anita - Cadbury World is about a mile from me...and I've never been there! :-D


Okay - you can all move on somewhere else now!! :-D
'Oh voice of Spring of Youth
hearts mad delight,
Sing on, sing on, and when the sun is gone
I'll warm me with your echoes
through the night.'

(E. Blyton, Sunday Times, 1951)



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Re: Your favourite holiday location.

Post by Anita Bensoussane »

I seem to remember that chocolate gives you a migraine, Rob, so I can see why Cadbury World might not appeal! The only "chocolate factory" I've been to is the Menier Chocolate Factory in London. It's now a theatre but looking at the old brickwork and the iron gates gives me a Charlie and the Chocolate Factory feeling!
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Rob Houghton
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Re: Your favourite holiday location.

Post by Rob Houghton »

Yes - I'm not a fan of chocolate, so I guess its not surprising. We used to go to the Cadbury factory to see amateur musical shows in their theatre (Bournville Operatic Society used to perform there, before the Americans took the factory over!) and watching the show, the strong smell of chocolate used to make me feel sick! :lol:
'Oh voice of Spring of Youth
hearts mad delight,
Sing on, sing on, and when the sun is gone
I'll warm me with your echoes
through the night.'

(E. Blyton, Sunday Times, 1951)



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Re: Your favourite holiday location.

Post by floragord »

Anita Bensoussane wrote:I visited all those places with my friend Vanessa, Eddie. We found the people of Rome to be very kind. When our train was late arriving in Rome and the hostel we'd hoped to check into was full, a lady who overheard us talking offered to take us to another hostel on the outskirts of town. It was late afternoon rush-hour and it took her an hour to get us there (with her young child in the car) but she wouldn't take any payment. On leaving Rome a few days later, we were standing near the Spanish Steps in the rain as we had an hour or two to kill before getting the Metro to Termini Station and had run out of Italian money. If I remember correctly we were taking the overnight train to Brindisi where we'd be catching a ferry to Greece, so we didn't want to change any more travellers' cheques (our journey was paid for and we had enough food on us to last for the next couple of days). Two young men got talking to us, took us to a café, bought us ice-creams/drinks, travelled with us on the Metro and waved us off on the train. We were sorry to leave!
What great travel experiences, Anita, we were amazed how pleasant everyone was, usually in cities one's pretty invisible but everyone went out of their way to be welcoming and kind. We went to the post office in Ostia Antica to get some euros from the ATM which was out of order - talking to each other about what to do next a man passing by took us to the bank in a back street which we'd never have found in the rest of our stay, and dropped us off at the train station waving us off to Rome! InterRail must have been huge fun, what a great way to see Europe! Your visit to Rome sounded most enjoyable Eddie, hope everyone else has a fabulous time when you do your Grand Tour of the sites! We took H V Morton's A TRAVELLER IN ROME as a guidebook, written in the 1950s but the ancient places don't change and its a first-class read too! PS: I haven't been to Birmingham, must change that, maybe a stopver next time we're en route to the old home town of Edinburgh!
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Re: Your favourite holiday location.

Post by Darrell71 »

Rob Houghton wrote:I'm not a fan of chocolate
Good Heavens
You can call me Sunskriti!
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