Inflight Magazine of Brussels Airlines

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United Kingdom : Birmingham - December 2009

Country Code: Dial for United Kingdom

Despite the winter gloom, Britain’s second city’s all atwinkle in December, its major thoroughfares decked with lights. Check out the toothsome festivities at Cadbury World, which until 20 December will be transformed into a Winter Wonderland, with brass bands, an ice-skating rink and, of course, hot chocolate to warm those winter cockles. Sally Howard tugs on her mittens

Getting around

Birmingham International

Bus: Buses from the airport to the city centre leave every 30 minutes and a single fare costs €1,95/£1.50.
Train: Trains run from Birmingham International to New Street Station; the journey will take around 10-20 minutes and a return ticket will cost €7/£5.30 before 9.30am and €4,50/£3.40 after 9.30am.
Taxi: A taxi from the airport into the city centre will cost around €22/£17 and take about 40 minutes.
Tourist information: The main tourist office is at The Rotunda, 150 New Street (tel. , beinbirmingham. com).

EDGBASTON

This affluent residential district blossomed in Victorian times. Edgbaston today remains both moneyed and pleasingly leafy, but is best known to non-locals for its international cricket ground.

Culture vultures – Visit the Barber Institute of Fine Arts (Birmingham University campus), with its outstanding collections of Old Masters and Picassos.

Must eat – For scallops and champagne, treat yourself at Michelin-starred Simpsons (20 Highfield Road, tel. ). Book one of the two plant-trailed private gazebos if romance is on the menu.

SMALLBROOK QUEENSWAY AND HOLLOWAY CIRCUS

Flanked by a curving strip of 60s office blocks with a touch of the Soviet bloc in their aesthetic, quirky start-ups and high-end hotels happily co-exist on this strip, to the south of New Street train station.

Sleep soundly – The arrival of the shimmering blue Beetham Tower skyscraper heralded the renaissance of grimy Holloway Circus. Book a plush room in the tower’s Radisson Blu (12 Holloway Circus, Queensway, tel. , radissonblu.co.uk, rooms from €107/£97), with its fabulous views over the city and beyond. Dine at hotel restaurant Filini, a sharp-edged Italian joint famed for its generous antipasti plates.

Culture vultures – Catch a movie at the UK’s oldest working cinema, The Electric (47 Station Street) renovated with plush velvet sofas and an at-yourseat waiter service. It’s 100 this month.

Must drink – With a 1960s mod theme and many patrons who dress the part, Sunflower Lounge (76 Smallbrook Queensway) is the hip place to hang if you’re into alternative sounds.

SHIRLEY AND HALL GREEN

A suburban outpost on the main route from Birmingham to Stratford-upon- Avon, Shirley was once famous for its racecourse and lido. Sadly, both have closed, but these communities still make a great stop-off heading south out of the city.

Culture vultures – An extant stretch of the ancient Forest of Arden, Bill’s Wood offers an otherworldly afternoon’s ramble. Walk to the thatch-topped Wood Farm (Bill’s Lane) at its southern edge, which sells Christmas trees and holly during December. Or visit 16th-century Sarehole Mill, a Grade II-listed watermill in the Hall Green village of Sarehole, where Tolkien lived as a child. Or bet a few greenbacks at Hall Green Stadium (York Road), an atmospheric greyhound racing stadium that first opened its doors in the 1920s.

Must eat – Fast gathering a word-ofmouth reputation for classy French dining, Liaison (1558 Stratford Road, tel. ) offers a menu heavy on the truffle oil and game, despite its modest pricings.

A LITTLE FURTHER OUT… LOWER SLAUGHTER

Just 40 minutes from Birmingham, Lower Slaughter is the perfect English village. Little more than a cluster of Cotswold stone cottages bisected by a lazy stream, it’s that vision of England so often peddled in films and so rarely seen in real life.

Sleep soundly – Bag an attic room at the Lords of the Manor (Upper Slaughter, tel. , lordsofthemanor.com, rooms from €211/£191), tucked up in the eaves of this grand, golden manor house. They have the best views of the surrounding Cotswold countryside.

Must eat – The hotel’s Michelinstarred restaurant is worth the detour alone. Head chef Matt Weedon makes innovative use of local ingredients in dishes like sirloin of Cotswold Longhorn beef with fricassée of Hereford snails, broad beans, cep purée and red wine sauce.

Compiled by Sally Howard