Post by eloneen on Sept 14, 2019 0:13:16 GMT
Eloneen's Family Trip to the UK and France - Part 3
(Thanks for your patience! My life's been rather....interesting as of late, thus the delay.)
So, we left London early one morning and went to Victoria Coach Station to take a bus to ...Birmingham! When we arrived, it was raining quite a bit, very appropriate for the birthplace of ELO, I thought! We made our way to our hotel (right on Broad Street in the center of town) and contacted our fearless leader Horacewimp to schedule our official tour of Brum and all things related to ELO and the Industrial Revolution!! We planned to meet at 2:00 PM, so we took a little nap, walked around a bit along one of the canals, and went out for lunch near the hotel.
We found the canals to not be sad at all, but kind of nice, even hip!
First, we all found Brum to be a pleasant and attractive city! In fact, my son said that Brum was better than London and Paris (which he had visited with me before)!! When we were in London and mentioned to various people that we were on our way to Birmingham next, these people invariably responded with a quizzical "Birmingham? Why Birmingham?" When Vlog was around, she explained the ELO connection, but we felt sad that Brum got so little respect!
Secondly, let me say that Horacewimp is one of the nicest guys a person could ever want to meet! He met us at the reception area of our hotel, wearing his ELO shirt. We gave him two gifts - an ELO 2019 Tour t shirt and a NC Beer Map, with information about all of the craft breweries and the beer festivals in the state throughout the year, and some NC gifts for his family. It was still raining when we set out, so we were ducking in and out of various covered places for the first part of the tour until the rain let up and Mr. Blue Sky appeared. Very ELO!!
Here we are- me and my hubby, along with Horacewimp next to a well known bull from the Industrial Revolution.
A location you might remember from the Brum Commonwealth Games Mr. Blue Sky video:
Some locals from the Industrial Revolution, no doubt, just outside the Birmingham Public Library.
Other sights around Brum:
There was so much construction in the area that Jeff's star on Broad Street was not accessible , but I did get a photo of Roy's star (along with the bottom of my purse and my shoes ).
We forgot to go back for a photo of Bev's star. (Don't tell his favorite fan about that, OK? )
HW took us to a beautiful pub called The Old Joint Stock, where we bought a round of drinks for the four of us (a Sprite for the young man, of course).
Horacewimp also took us to the BBC News Midlands Studios where we toured the visitor area. Hubby posed with the Tardis from Dr. Who (he's a fan), and with Dalek, too. The young man did a goofy and hilarious green screen weather forecast.
Hubby was ready to go back to the hotel to rest, since he was not feeling well, so the young man and I continued with a guided tour in HW's (very nice) car to Shard End to see JL's childhood home, and to the Jaguar auto plant. The young man really enjoyed riding up front in a British car, sitting in what would be the driver's seat here in the US.
The next morning, HW was kind enough to swing by the hotel to pick us up and take us to the airport. He was sporting his new ELO 2019 Tour t shirt, too! What a sweet guy he is! His lovely wife sent us a gift by way of HW, too - a book chock full of interesting facts about Brum. Our son insisted that Brum was better than London and much better than Paris...
Next stop...Paris, where my son's ranking of the world's finest cities would be put to the test!
(Thanks for your patience! My life's been rather....interesting as of late, thus the delay.)
So, we left London early one morning and went to Victoria Coach Station to take a bus to ...Birmingham! When we arrived, it was raining quite a bit, very appropriate for the birthplace of ELO, I thought! We made our way to our hotel (right on Broad Street in the center of town) and contacted our fearless leader Horacewimp to schedule our official tour of Brum and all things related to ELO and the Industrial Revolution!! We planned to meet at 2:00 PM, so we took a little nap, walked around a bit along one of the canals, and went out for lunch near the hotel.
We found the canals to not be sad at all, but kind of nice, even hip!
First, we all found Brum to be a pleasant and attractive city! In fact, my son said that Brum was better than London and Paris (which he had visited with me before)!! When we were in London and mentioned to various people that we were on our way to Birmingham next, these people invariably responded with a quizzical "Birmingham? Why Birmingham?" When Vlog was around, she explained the ELO connection, but we felt sad that Brum got so little respect!
Secondly, let me say that Horacewimp is one of the nicest guys a person could ever want to meet! He met us at the reception area of our hotel, wearing his ELO shirt. We gave him two gifts - an ELO 2019 Tour t shirt and a NC Beer Map, with information about all of the craft breweries and the beer festivals in the state throughout the year, and some NC gifts for his family. It was still raining when we set out, so we were ducking in and out of various covered places for the first part of the tour until the rain let up and Mr. Blue Sky appeared. Very ELO!!
Here we are- me and my hubby, along with Horacewimp next to a well known bull from the Industrial Revolution.
A location you might remember from the Brum Commonwealth Games Mr. Blue Sky video:
Some locals from the Industrial Revolution, no doubt, just outside the Birmingham Public Library.
Other sights around Brum:
There was so much construction in the area that Jeff's star on Broad Street was not accessible , but I did get a photo of Roy's star (along with the bottom of my purse and my shoes ).
We forgot to go back for a photo of Bev's star. (Don't tell his favorite fan about that, OK? )
HW took us to a beautiful pub called The Old Joint Stock, where we bought a round of drinks for the four of us (a Sprite for the young man, of course).
Horacewimp also took us to the BBC News Midlands Studios where we toured the visitor area. Hubby posed with the Tardis from Dr. Who (he's a fan), and with Dalek, too. The young man did a goofy and hilarious green screen weather forecast.
Hubby was ready to go back to the hotel to rest, since he was not feeling well, so the young man and I continued with a guided tour in HW's (very nice) car to Shard End to see JL's childhood home, and to the Jaguar auto plant. The young man really enjoyed riding up front in a British car, sitting in what would be the driver's seat here in the US.
The next morning, HW was kind enough to swing by the hotel to pick us up and take us to the airport. He was sporting his new ELO 2019 Tour t shirt, too! What a sweet guy he is! His lovely wife sent us a gift by way of HW, too - a book chock full of interesting facts about Brum. Our son insisted that Brum was better than London and much better than Paris...
Next stop...Paris, where my son's ranking of the world's finest cities would be put to the test!