Vacations Blog

Birmingham is a vibrant city in the English county of the West Midlands and it is a really popular vacation destination and  day trips. The city has an incredible selection of superb attractions including many churches which have Grade I status and other important buildings as well as many museums and galleries, including Birmingham’s Ikon Gallery.

Birmingham’s Ikon Gallery is an art gallery focusing on contemporary art which is situated in the building which was once the Oozells Street Board School in Brindleyplace, but it was not always in such surroundings.

The gallery was founded in nineteen sixty four by Angus Skene and 4 artists.  The 4 artists were; Sylvani Merilion, Jesse Bruton, David Prentice and Robert Groves. Angus Skene had acquired and the two of them talked about the numerous problems suffered by local artists, which included the extreme lack of venues and support for local artists.  The discussion resulted in the basic concepts for Ikon which was to be a “gallery without walls”.

Skene initially funded the project, which consisted of exhibitions in such varied venues as cinemas and post offices in a motorcycle sidecar. The idea was to allow the general public more access to art.  In order to keep the overheads down staffing duties was by the family, friends and the founding artists who did not charge. In 1965 the Gallery established itself in a glass walled stall in the Bull Ring shopping centre.

During the next couple of decades the Ikon Gallery moved from location to location until 1997 when it bought, with help from the National Lottery Fund, the current premises, the former Oozells Street Board School. recently the Gallery has held a selection of exhibitions and its continuous ability to excel has led to it becoming surprisingly popular, to such an extent that it opened another gallery in 2006, Ikon Eastside in  Digbeth.

If you are thinking about taking a Birmingham vacation we hope that you would think about visiting the Ikon Gallery. Also it is important to know that although there are many guest houses and hotels in Birmingham finding Birmingham bed and breakfast can sometimes be rather difficult. Because of this it is vitally important to book your accommodation at the earliest opportunity. You should be aware that Birmingham’s international airport is about eight miles east of the center of the city just off the A45, near the M42. You will discover that there is a number of guest houses near to the airport.

Well there isn’t really many choice in the matter as you either live to far away from your favourite or just think going to the likes of Disney World is a far better option to take. So what are the choices we have here in the UK?

The great Alton Towers

The biggest one is easily going to be The awsome Alton Towers and  houses the rides like Nemesis, Ripsaw, Rita and the kids favourite Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. The biggest and best is likely to be this one but it is also going to be the busiest.

Thorpe Park

This park is mainly focused around water but it is important to realise this is not a water park. SAW, the ride based on the movies is also held here.

Chessington and Legoland are the two that mainly focuses in on the kids. Chessington is a Zoo as well as a theme park and Legoland not only houses rides but a land where you can look at some of the best Lego ever built including a Kennedy Space Centre Launch made entirely of the Lego bricks. Drayton Manor also exists and this is a lot like Chessington apart from it might contain a few rides everyone can enjoy.

What do you do if a theme park isnt for you? The answer is simple, why not go up into the country and stay there for a few days on one of those brilliant UK family holidays. Wales is a lovely spot to go to where you can experience Britain for its true wonder and beauty. Of course you could just go up to Cardiff Castle on family days out. Either way, Wales should certainly be on your list of must places to go when you head to Britain.

Vacations in England seem to be increasingly popular at the moment, probably due to the present depression and the weak pound. The United Kingdom has large selection of top class vacation destinations including London (the capital of England) and other interesting cities plus a fine collection of seaside resorts such as; Blackpool, Bognor Regis, Great Yarmouth and Margate. One city commonly overlooked is Plymouth in the south of England.

At first glance Plymouth appears a little plain and principally modern, but looking a little bit deeper and you will soon discover that the city of Plymouth has a rich history and a long association with the sea. As far back as the sixteenth century there has been a port in the town. In 1588 Sir Francis Drake set sail from the town’s port to attack and defeat the Spanish Armada. Another moment in history occurred in 1620 when the port served as the last embarkation point for the Pilgrim Fathers on their journey to North America.

It is possible to take inexpensive weekend city breaks in Plymouth by booking rooms in Plymouth bed and breakfast rather than booking rooms in a posh hotel. A quick search on Google will reveal that rooms are available from as little as £29 a night and some places offer dinners at a very reasonable cost, commonly equal to, or cheaper than local restaurants.

Tourist Attractions In Plymouth

There are many interesting places in the town which are worth a visit. Popular visitor attractions include; the old quay at Sutton Harbour, the National Marine Aquarium, the Barbican district and Merchant’s House Museum. A boat cruise around the naval base is an excellent way to spend some time and if you have more time why not take a day trip to other places close to Plymouth, for example; Buckland Abbey, Mount Edgcumbe or Saltram House.

Saltram House is a lovely Tudor Mansion which is found 2m from the town of Plymouth, Mount Edgcumbe is another fine example of a Tudor house with parklands, coastal paths and landscaped gardens, and Buckland Abbey, about 6 miles away from Plymouth, is a Cistercian abbey which was at one time by Francis Drake and was at a later date converted into a family home.

If you are in the process of deciding upon taking a vacation in Plymouth it is incredibly important that you book your  accommodation as early as possible as, unfortunately Plymouth hotels tend to be alarmingly busy and are often fully booked months in advance. If you are a large group you might find that apartment accommodation in Plymouth prove to be reasonable alternative to bed & breakfast in Plymouth. If you are visiting the UK from overseas then why not consider making a reservation for a room in hotels in London to take in the attractions of the capital city of England also.

Did you know that the first country who organized sports at a national level is Britain? Although art might not have been their strongest point, they have things to be proud of nowadays.

Sports

Britain is known to be the first country to organize sport as national activity. In the second half of the nineteen century it organized an exported a number of games, notably football, rugby football, hockey, lawn tennis, golf and cricket. The initial purpose behind organized sports was to provide an outlet for youthful energies at public schools. It was generally believed to have character - building qualities for future leaders! However, it was not long before local businessmen began to organize football and other sports as recreational activity for their workforces. Football clubs quickly sprang up in towns and cities all over Britain, and football was rapidly taken into working-class culture. The Saturday afternoon match was an occasion which working - class men would attend, supporting their local team.

From the 1960’s, however, the character of football began to change. A fundamental reason was the financial one. As match attendances dropped, club sought external help from sponsorship and advertising. Commercial companies found this profitable. For example, Cornhill Insurance began to sponsor English ‘test’ cricket in 1980 at a cost of £4.5 million.

Beforehand only 2 per cent of the population had heard of Cornhill, while by 1985, 20 per cent had done so, Cornhill had almost doubled its turnover. The decline in spectators forced club managers to make their sporting events less occasions for local support and more displays of spectacular skill. Football clubs started buying and selling players.

Football had become big business, and immediately began to attract private investors. Multimillionaires and commercial enterprises soon took an interest and several bought control of particular clubs.

Over a century ago, the novelist Anthony Trollope listed the sports ‘essentially dear to the English nature’. These included hunting, shooting, rowing and horseracing. He was, of course, referring to the ‘gentleman class’, which through the public school established football, rugby and cricket as national games. A class dimension to sport persists. Because of the expense involved, hunting, rowing and horseracing have remained primarily upper-class pastimes. Golf is still to some extent financially segregated between exclusive private clubs and municipal facilities. Football remains essentially lower class, but with a growing middle-class following.

Sport remains one of the areas in which members of ethnic minorities have demonstrated their ability in a white dominated society, particularly in athletics, cricket and soccer. The black footballer, Paul Ince, has captained the English football team and the black sprinter, Lindford Christie, was the captain of the British men’s Olympic team in both 1992 and1996.

Arts

The British find discussion of their national artistic and intellectual life faintly embarrassing. As the great British art historian, Nikolaus Pevsner, himself a refugee immigrant, remarked over 30 years ago, ‘None of the other nations of Europe has so abject an inferiority complex about its own aesthetic capabilities as England.’

Nowadays, Britain has much to be proud of, though its artistic achievements are frequently better appreciated, and known, abroad than home.

As in fashion, the British seem to enjoy breaking the rules of the current modernist style, and this perhaps is what gives British art such originality. As one critic wrote recently, ‘British artists, who are currently enjoying the highest international standing, have been singularly unaffected by the much vaunted internationalism of the Modern Movement. English art is perhaps beginning to escape from insularity and provincialism though a rediscovery of its Englishness.’

Theater is a powerful instrument in education as well as art and culture. Another significant feature of British theater is a result of the intensive preparation and speed with which productions are staged and their short performance lifespan. Their intensity and freshness is not allowed to grow stale. Another important point, however, is the youthfulness of many of the best productions. Length of experience in Britain is not allowed to stand in the way of talent, and as a result, young people, some recently from drama school, perform many leading roles.

Since the 1960s Britain has achieved a special position in music. Britain remains at the forefront of pop music. At the start of the 1990’s, British pop music seemed to be rediscovering the spirit of the 1960’s. The new music marks a departure from the unrelaxed mood of the 1980’s, and is a declaration of freedom..

By Claudia Miclaus