Birmingham
It's been a few days so I'll start by catching up on them.
Saturday Sarah and Margo took a train out of Betws-y-Coed to tour a shale mine. Margo may write about it later. Apparently the shale roofing used across the UK since the Industrial Revolution came from these mines. I took time to do a bit more hiking and exploring and reading the extra-thick Saturday newspapers. There's especially been lots of analysis of the recent airline terrorism attempt.
Sunday was mostly a travel day as we took three separate train journeys to get to Birmingham. I have to say I've really been enjoying having an iPod on a train. It's a great balance of visual and audio stimulation. (Earlier, I really enjoyed steaming through the Scottish Highlands listening to some mid-period Depeche Mode, though I didn't think to play the Highland Mix of Stripped at the time. Sunday I started with selections from Alan Parsons' I Robot then moved on to some early Radiohead, then moving into some chillout with Recoil and Massive Attack.) When I first got the iPod, I thought it was a bit of an indulgence, sort of a mobile backup of our music collection, but I've really been enjoying its use.
Last night we stayed in the city centre in a very interesting hotel named nitenite. These were wee rooms! We got two, Sarah staying with me. The rooms and lounge were highly designed. The bathroom combines a shower stall with a sink and toilet, with a wall-length drain and brilliant fixtures. The rest of the room is a single bed/sofa and a tiny desk. There's no closet, nor even space to put luggage. There's no window either, but the 42" flat panel TV at the foot of the bed comes on by default to display a closed-circuit TV camera on the roof, which robotically pans to optimal positions every minute. I imagine it's ideal for business travellers, but it was a bit rough for us - both Margo and I had trouble sleeping; for me not having a window was disorienting, like being in a space station.
Last night we walked to an achingly hip nearby market called the Mailbox for dinner. Like Portland's Pearl district, there's a lot of industrial renovation where old buildings are terraformed into upscale condos and shopping. The area also had a canal running through it. I don't know about these canals yet. They appear to be manmade since the water level appears higher than the level of nearby streets. We saw some narrow houseboats and Venetian-style gondolas, plus some people fishing with identical long, black poles.
This morning Margo and Sarah took the train a bit out of town to see a Cadbury chocolate factory. I'm exploring the city. I'm writing from the public library; nitenite offered excellent wifi but at a fee, and its router apparently didn't even offer me an IP address when I attempted to use it. I'm taking some pictures as I go; I'll have to upload them later.
Birmingham is a growing city. There's a lot of new construction, and it is impressively modern. I started my walk through the Bullring shopping area, and it is overwhelming. More than just a mall, it's a collection of shopping arcades the likes of which I haven't seen anywhere. I'd think it might take days to get a good sense of it all. Many stores appear in multiple locations, within a block of each other, and it's all done in a very visually stimulating style with lots of atriums and glass.
I'm planning to go through a museum or two next (it's so great to have free admission). Later this afternoon we will regroup and go on to London.
Saturday Sarah and Margo took a train out of Betws-y-Coed to tour a shale mine. Margo may write about it later. Apparently the shale roofing used across the UK since the Industrial Revolution came from these mines. I took time to do a bit more hiking and exploring and reading the extra-thick Saturday newspapers. There's especially been lots of analysis of the recent airline terrorism attempt.
Sunday was mostly a travel day as we took three separate train journeys to get to Birmingham. I have to say I've really been enjoying having an iPod on a train. It's a great balance of visual and audio stimulation. (Earlier, I really enjoyed steaming through the Scottish Highlands listening to some mid-period Depeche Mode, though I didn't think to play the Highland Mix of Stripped at the time. Sunday I started with selections from Alan Parsons' I Robot then moved on to some early Radiohead, then moving into some chillout with Recoil and Massive Attack.) When I first got the iPod, I thought it was a bit of an indulgence, sort of a mobile backup of our music collection, but I've really been enjoying its use.
Last night we stayed in the city centre in a very interesting hotel named nitenite. These were wee rooms! We got two, Sarah staying with me. The rooms and lounge were highly designed. The bathroom combines a shower stall with a sink and toilet, with a wall-length drain and brilliant fixtures. The rest of the room is a single bed/sofa and a tiny desk. There's no closet, nor even space to put luggage. There's no window either, but the 42" flat panel TV at the foot of the bed comes on by default to display a closed-circuit TV camera on the roof, which robotically pans to optimal positions every minute. I imagine it's ideal for business travellers, but it was a bit rough for us - both Margo and I had trouble sleeping; for me not having a window was disorienting, like being in a space station.
Last night we walked to an achingly hip nearby market called the Mailbox for dinner. Like Portland's Pearl district, there's a lot of industrial renovation where old buildings are terraformed into upscale condos and shopping. The area also had a canal running through it. I don't know about these canals yet. They appear to be manmade since the water level appears higher than the level of nearby streets. We saw some narrow houseboats and Venetian-style gondolas, plus some people fishing with identical long, black poles.
This morning Margo and Sarah took the train a bit out of town to see a Cadbury chocolate factory. I'm exploring the city. I'm writing from the public library; nitenite offered excellent wifi but at a fee, and its router apparently didn't even offer me an IP address when I attempted to use it. I'm taking some pictures as I go; I'll have to upload them later.
Birmingham is a growing city. There's a lot of new construction, and it is impressively modern. I started my walk through the Bullring shopping area, and it is overwhelming. More than just a mall, it's a collection of shopping arcades the likes of which I haven't seen anywhere. I'd think it might take days to get a good sense of it all. Many stores appear in multiple locations, within a block of each other, and it's all done in a very visually stimulating style with lots of atriums and glass.
I'm planning to go through a museum or two next (it's so great to have free admission). Later this afternoon we will regroup and go on to London.
posted by Michael Nelson at 2:39 am
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