Day out in the city

There is a nice little shop in Upton-upon-Severn just down the river from here which specialises in maps. Amazing range of maps from the whole world. Need a map for the Sorrento peninsular in southern Italy near Napoli. Found a decent 1:50,000 map which should be good enough for planning walking routes.

Went to Birmingham afterwards, mainly for the open market and have a walk round the new Bullring (1 year old soon). Got a big watermelon for about £1.50 which wasn't too bad and a few other things like four fresh red mullet. These were loaded into the car before we went for lunch. The Bullring is a nice example of urban redevelopment. Basically it used to a 1960s mall development which was not very well liked. It was finally demolished and a new Bullring put it its place. Besides a brand new complex, the roads around the area were also changed. This broke the "ring of steel" (main road) around the area and connected it to the rest of the city centre, opening up new public squares and pedestrianised areas. For a full history, go here.

Did a bit more research on the area we were planning to go to in the big bookshop in the Bullring and bought one overpriced coffee from Starbucks located within the bookshop itself to share between the two of us (yes we are cheapskate). The weather was quite nice as we left so I just had to take a photo or two but trying not to look like a tourist. All in all a nice day out, even though I don't usually like to go to big cities where there are lots of people. Only blot on the day was the terrible traffic jam on the way out to the motorway due to a double decker bus kissing a car.


Old and new in Birmingham - Selfridges and St Martin's church

Location 52°N 2°W