Weekend in Birmingham

With only a night to stay in Birmingham, we were happy to find our hotel had a personality. While one of the English gentlemen in our party seemed to recall the building in which we were staying as a hospital many years ago, the Hotel du Vin & Bistro feels like a nice retreat from the hustle-bustle of a busy city now. The front lobby is nicely appointed with a painted ceiling and leads to a courtyard with a retractable roof. There you'll find two "guests" enjoying the natural light, waiting for a cocktail: two modern statues, one sitting, the other standing. I had to wonder if the lady statue was a little chilly in the midst of her perpetual musings as she forgot to wear her clothes.

So how was our room? Really delightful. We stayed in the Villa Maria. (The 66 bedrooms at this hotel are not numbered but named.) A cushy bed covered in a white duvet awaited me and my husband. Here were all the things you'd expect at a hotel of this kind: a fully stocked mini-bar, flat screened TV, Internet access. But then there were the steps leading down to the bath and the giant "power shower." (The toilet room is separate, near the front door.) Oh, how I wanted to take that shower home with me! An absolute waterfall gushes out of the supersized showerhead to warm you up after a cold winter's night. Or a soak in the tub might be more your speed.

Extras? We had a nightcap in the Cigar du Vin, a cellar bar on-site with lots of squashy sofas in which to have a nice conversation after the hotel's Bubble Lounge closed down. We also enjoyed breakfast in the bistro style restaurant: a full English deal with sausage, black pudding, and eggs. I noticed a nice billiards room that had a very masculine feel, what with the painting of a lady astride a cigar adorning one wall! To satisfy my more feminine interests, I wish I had been able to take advantage of the SPA and get a stone massage (65 pounds) or a facial (55 pounds) or a manicure (20 pounds). Alas! Maybe we should have stayed for TWO nights!

Happily, the Hotel du Vin has other townhouse hotels scattered around England in Bristol, Winchester, Tunbridge Wells, Brighton, Harrogate, and Henley-on-Thames.

I enjoyed our stay here.

Cadbury World is located about 4 miles from Birmingham in an area called Bourneville that the Cadbury family actually built up itself for employees. The idea was to create a "society" around the factory so that workers and owners alike would benefit from the business.

While I could argue that the set-up they created undermined the employee's incentive/ability to get onto the property ladder for himself, there is no doubt at all that the original Cadbury company was way ahead of its time when trying to balance its profit motive with the social welfare of those workers who made that profit possible.

This was most certainly partially motivated by the deep religious beliefs of the Cadbury family, and I found learning about how England's most famous chocolate company came into being very interesting indeed.

Apparently, Quakers are not allowed to drink alcohol...but there isn't a problem with tea, coffee, or chocolate. As the price of cocoa dropped, Mr. Cadbury provided "drinking chocolate" for his customers to replicate the fashionable "chocolate houses" in London. Chocolate was still a bit of a novelty, and the Cadbury family learned new ways to make it delicious. That was over a hundred years ago. Today Cadbury is still an important employer in the United Kingdom.

What was the attraction like? Well, the tickets are a bit expensive. It was about £30 for our family of 3, so I wanted something truly marvelous. I'm not sure this experience would live up to that description, but we did enjoy ourselves. You start out in a show presented by holograms that gives you the basic this-is-how-we-made-our-chocolate-yummy breakdown on a kid level.

Then you move onto the museum, which you push through at your own pace.

The first exhibit here explains how the Aztecs were the true founders of chocolate. Then the Spanish brought the cocoa secret back to Europe.

At one point you end up in a room that has a shaking bench, steam that comes up from the floor, and a fast narrative explaining how cocoa beans turn into chocolate.

There are some other cool little things to learn/see along the way, i.e., how DO they get the creme into the center of chocolate eggs? But my engineer husband found walking through the factory itself the most interesting.

There's also a little ride that takes you through a cocoa bean world.

When my son was younger, he would have really enjoyed this. As it was, I got to hear a lot of snickering derision from where he sat in the backseat.

At 13, he liked looking at the Cadbury commercials "through the decades" the most.

Bottom line? You get free chocolate as you make your way through the factory, and that's fun. Some of the history is interesting. We went late in the afternoon, which, I think, was a great move because it wasn't crowded. Cheap bargains are found in the factory store.

I'm glad we went, but it is expensive for what we got.

When I think of England, I think of tea. When I think of tea, I think of tea pots. When I think of tea pots, I think of fine china. When I think of fine china, I think of a few fine porcelain factories operating in England. One of the factories I think of is Royal Worcester, which seems pretty natural since porcelain has been produced in Worcester since 1751.

About 45 minutes outside of Birmingham, going south towards Bristol on the M5 (You'll pass the turn-off to Cadbury), you will find a wonderful opportunity to buy not just a tea pot... but a tea pot even the Queen would be proud to own. AND you can go to a museum to learn all about why Royal Worcester produces quality.

Now, I gotta tell you... some things in life are not cheap. Royal Worcester? Not cheap. Who knew a decorative pot could cost £4000? For me to pay £4000, that pot had better have a motor hidden under its lid! I mean, it had better do something pretty darn exciting. But then, I don't have £4000 to spend. Sooo, when I went to Worcester, the place I most wanted to visit was what? The store selling seconds!!! Here a teapot that might cost £200 if perfect can be had for £50. Why? The line has been discontinued. There's a slight imperfection in the base. The handle doesn't match perfectly to the handle on the coffee pot. Who knows!!! For a 75% discount, I can live with any of that stuff. Wrap it up!

Of course, I also looked at what was available in the "firsts" store where I saw a picture of Queen Elizabeth hanging on the wall. She was smiling ear-to-ear upon a visit to Royal Worcester. She probably looked so happy because she can afford a pot for £4000!!! :)

But I digress...

If you want a "perfect" purchase, you'd shop in the store with firsts.

So, apart from the stores, what is here to see/do?

Well, as previously mentioned, in addition to shopping, you can take an audio tour of the largest Worcester collection in England. The museum is in a building set apart from the stores, and it costs £5 to enter. The tour takes an hour and is well worth the time for people who have a real interest in this type of esthetic.

You can also take a factory tour (for another charge) and paint a plate at the end!

If such things don't tickle your fancy, grab a cup of tea in the cafe.

Need-to-Know Details:

Royal Worcester is located near the lovely Worcester Cathedral near Worcester's town center. It has its own car park! This is pay-and-display, but a couple hours is under two quid.

Royal Worcester is open seven days a week from 9-5:30 except on Sundays when they open at 11.

Everything is closed on Christmas Day, Easter Sunday, and Boxing Day.

Further details are available at:

http://www.worcesterporcelainmuseum.org.uk/index.cfm

The Black Country Living Museum is close to Birmingham but not actually within the city. In fact, the different counties that make up the Black Country might be considered Brommie suburbs, but once upon a time, they were industrial centers for England.

Why is the region called the Black Country?
The land involved was mined for coal, so the land itself turned black. Chimneys puffed, so the sky was black with smoke. The fires burned, so at night the world turned red.

Coal has long ago left England for a variety of reasons. The resource is still there, but it's not mined. The grass has turned green again, the sky blue, and the nights are the only thing left black in the region. To remember a busier time, the Black Country Living Museum was erected.

What's the museum like to visit?
This is a good place to go with a family. It's an open-air museum that tells the story of the Black Country in an interactive way. My family and I visited on a gray sort of day when it was cold and drizzling... not the best of times.

First, we entered the museum and watched an introductory film on the area. Then we walked through an exhibit that told us which each part of the Black Country was once famous for: the goods the people produced.

Outside this building, we found the village: the main attraction. We stopped at the building that turned out to be a steam engine. A gentleman in period dress explained to us how this mechanism was first built just a few miles up the road. It was a launching pad for the entire Industrial Revolution that would change England... and the world. I loved the quick science lesson we got as the guide showed the small crowd that gathered how steam made a lever go up and down.

After this, we went to the coal mine. This was interesting to tour as well. The guide took us below in hard hats, and we walked along with low beam torches---That's flashlights for Americans---while a recording narrated highlights. I thought it was interesting to learn that only men worked in these mines as I know women also worked in the mines in Wales. Perhaps one of the reasons for this is that the men in the Black Country often toiled naked. Clothes were very expensive, so they couldn't afford to ruin them. They simply took them off. We got the low down on which each guy's job in the mine would be, and this was all interesting to me. (Plus the mine was a good reprieve from the cold weather!)

Some younger children were on our coal mine tour, and they loved it whenever we were told to turn our torches off as it would get black as coal in the tunnels. They'd squeal and giggle until their mothers told them to shut it. Then they'd squeal and giggle into their palms. Bless 'em.

Apart from the coal mine, vistors can go to a sweets shop, get fish and chips, walk through a miner's house, see an old school room, ride in a canal boat (this comes with a small extra charge), go to a fair ground (if it's not raining), and just enjoy a relaxing day wandering the whole thing.

Our son went to the museum with his school on a different day, and he told us some of the places like the blacksmith shop had a blacksmith building chains the old fashioned way though the blacksmith's workshop was closed up the day we visited as a family. I think this was probably due to the rain.

Bottom line?
This is an interesting attraction, especially if you have kids. But I'd go on a sunny day to get the full bang for your buck. If half the things are closed, it feels expensive. Adult tickets are £12 each though kids get a break and there are family combos to be had.

Website?
Visit www.bclm.co.uk for more information.