Should You House Sit As A Family?

One of the most Frequently Asked Questions about House Sitting is this: 

Can I House Sit with my family?

And the short answer is: Yes! Absolutely. 

Lots of House Sits out there are luxurious House Sits and/or House Sits for family homes - either way there is plenty of room for you and your family. 

Our favourite House Sitting Website - Trusted Housesitters actually has a section that states whether families are welcome in the homes, this is very useful and you can see up front whether you and your family can have free accommodation in that house.

Lots of people become house sitters to gain free accommodation anywhere in the world, and this is especially important for travelling families - more members means higher hotel costs! 

But what about our own personal experiences House Sitting as a family? 


Now, despite being together since 2006, and despite Tanbay's mums constant hints that we should have babies, we remain childless (children hate me). But that's not going to stop us House Sitting with a  family!

We House Sat with my family in Malvern, England! We found a lovely couple with a great house - very big and fancy with a cool 'granny flat' beneath. (A granny flat is a self contained smaller section of a house, usually used to look after your granny when she's too old to be left on her own for too long, but still too independent to go to an old people's home. Granny flats are becoming more and more used as a guest flats as well.)

My mum and her partner stayed in the main house and Tanbay and I took the flat. It was a great set-up because we could enjoy each other's company in the main house, but didn't have to wait for ages to use the shower (as we had our own one). It also meant that we could cook meals separately if we felt so inclined (which we didn't).  Furthermore, having our own living room and TV meant that Tanbay and I could watch classics like "The Grinch", "Elf" and "Home Alone" without my mum scolding me for watching rubbish and then forcing me to watch a worthwhile, artistic, 'makes you think' film (invariably with subtitles) ;)

Apart from having our own space (which everyone needs at Christmas), there was also a log fire, incredible views from the dinning room and an enormous organically reared (by next door) Turkey.

What were the other benefits?

Dogs

You might well know by now that we LOVE dogs. These two boys were no exception. They look a bit windswept in this photo because we were on top of the Malvern Hills. This was the first time that Tanbay and I have looked after Labradors and this breed has gone straight to the list of dogs we love. 

I've said it before and I'll say it again, we enjoy walking but we don't find we do it much unless we're looking after dogs. We enjoyed walking these guys immensely, though we did get stuck in the mud a fair few times..

Walking dogs on Christmas day is such a great family activity, but it's something that we wouldn't have done if we hadn't been House Sitting because none of us own a dog!

Poultry

We'd learnt on our Berlin House Sit and our First House Sit in England that looking after chickens is great. They aren't too much hassle and they make you eggs! This was the first time that we'd looked after a cockerel and ducks though. These were pretty easy too (though ducks are messy and cockerels don't lay eggs).

On an insanely windy day the chicken hut blew open. Luckily my mum saw it within moments of it happening and we all ran down to get them back in. It was actually quite fun and I can now add 'professional chicken catcher' to my résumé. Ha.

A beautiful relationship

There was an easy going horse on this sit, although he was on 'our' property he actually belonged to next door who fed him, but we kept an eye on him too and enjoyed giving him carrots. His relationship with the sheep was lovely.

This sheep was meant to go with his friends to become a lamb chop, but they didn't have enough room for him in the van so they left him behind with our home owners. By the time they came back for him he had formed a beautiful bond with the horse. Unlikely animal friendships are one of my favourite things ever and this one was super. They eat together, hang out together and when the sheep feels threatened (anytime anyone or any dog goes in the field) he hides underneath the horse!!

The Malverns 

The Malvern Hills are a really beautiful part of England and we really enjoyed walking the dogs up there, especially on Christmas Day when strangers said 'Happy Christmas' to each other. 

The views from the house were really lovely, especially at sunset and my mum and I amused ourselves by trying (and failing) to paint the wondrous scenes. 

Two dogs, seven chickens, six ducks, one cockerel, a massive house and a granny flat does sound like a lot of responsibility, but as there were four of us it was pretty easy! We made a great team with my mum and her partner, John, (the voluntarily early risers) walking the dogs in the morning, my mum and I (and usually Tanbay) walking the dogs in the afternoon, my mum's partner and Tanbay feeding/cleaning out the poultry and checking for eggs. And a combined effort on cleaning. It also meant that there were ample opportunities for some of us to leave the house for long periods of time (not usually possible when caring for dogs). 

We highly recommend House Sitting as a family, as a team the responsibility is shared and you get to stay in a wonderful place with people you love. 

P.S. The home owners were fully aware that there were four of us House Sitting for them! They even suggested that we invite other family/friends round whenever we liked. In fact one of the reasons they chose us was because they liked the idea of the house being used by a whole family at Christmas time. 

So what do you think? Will you be House Sitting with your family next Christmas?

P.S. If you would like a 10% discount for trustedhousesitters.com subscribe to our free mailing list now!

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Should I Take the Coach From London to Amsterdam?

As House Sitters, accommodation costs us nothing. But that doesn’t mean we’re going to blow our budget actually getting to our sits. Whilst we may lack money, we don’t lack time, thus we often choose to waste time, not money, on super long, super cheap coach journeys. Then we have the added bonus of being able to tell you if it was worth it (or not). 

Our first super long, super cheap coach journey in Europe was from London to Amsterdam - was it worth it? 

Three Things to Consider When Asking:

Should You Take the Coach From London to Amsterdam? 

1. The Price: This will probably be your biggest motivation for travelling via coach (it certainly was for us). But how much does it really cost and how does that compare to other modes of transport:

It costs £15 per person to get from London (Victoria Coach Station) to Amsterdam (Amstel Station) by coach* 

*Note, this is if you book it far enough in advance (about a month) with the right carrier. 

So how much do the other modes of transport cost:

• Train: Prices start from about £75 per person
• Car: For petrol and the ferry it's going to cost at least £78. That's not even taking into account the cost of insuring car and the cost of the car itself.
• Plane: Flying starts at about £20, if booked early enough and with the 'right' carrier. We would have opted for flying if we hadn't taken the coach. 

But whilst flying is only £5 more than the coach, there are lots of other additional costs to think about - On the coach you can take as much luggage as you like (weight wise), you can take fragile things and you can take as much liquid as you like (within reason). As opposed to flights, which suck you in with cheap cheap prices and then charge you for your suitcase and don't let you take liquids in your hand luggage. 

Furthermore, you have to factor in the cost of actually getting to/from the airport. The coach, on the other hand, takes you from the centre of London right into the centre of Amsterdam at no extra cost. 

Conclusion: Basically, other than hitchhiking, taking the coach is the cheapest way to get from London to Amsterdam - and has no nasty hidden costs. 

2. The Timing: This is where trains, flights, driving and even hitchhiking win. Coaches always take ages because they have to stop to pick up passengers/swap drivers. But how long does the coach actually take? 

We left London at 21:00 and arrived in Amsterdam the next day at 09:00. 
Thus the journey took 11 hours. (No my maths isn't wrong, there's an hour's time difference between the UK and the Netherlands.)

Now taking the train or driving take about 5 hours. The flight itself only takes about an hour but you've got to factor in the two hours (or so) that you've got to spend in the airport, plus the time getting there. 

Furthermore, getting into Amsterdam at 9am was the perfect time for us. All the cheap flights we looked at got in too early (6am) or too late (9pm). 

Finally, the majority of our 11 hours were spent sleeping, not exactly the best sleep ever, but certainly more relaxing than going through customs/driving down the motorway.

Conclusion: whilst 11 hours on a bus sounds awful, most of it was spent unconscious, and we arrived at an agreeable time. 

3. What's the journey like?: Who cares how cheap a journey is: if you're not able to use a toilet for 11 hours and the other passengers stick needles in your eyes, it is not worth it. So read on to hear about our first-hand account of what it is actually like taking the coach from London to Amsterdam:

The coach left from London Victoria Station, I don't know if you've ever been there, but it is pretty vile: it's overcrowded, everyone always seems to be in a foul mood and there are pigeons everywhere!! 

We had to queue up and show our passports - this is worth noting because generally in Europe if you don't board a plane you don't need a passport, but apparently you do in this situation - so don't forget yours!

Anyway, we then queued to get on the coach. This was actually pretty horrible. Everyone wanted to be the first on the coach, so when the doors opened there was a gigantic horrible push to get through. No one was crushed to death this time, but it was a close thing I think.. But then I have agoraphobia, for more adventurous travellers this probably would not have been a big deal.

Once we'd made it through, we got on the coach and sat down. It was relatively empty (it turned out that there were two coaches and no need for pushing). Then three minutes before the coach was due to leave, ten Americans got on. Turned out that they'd been sitting in the station, thinking that they were the first there and expecting the driver to come and tell them to get on the coach (lol).

Our driver was Dutch and actually hilarious, he didn't care about anything and gave a funny speech. 

After the Americans finished telling the rest of the coach (well one couple, but it carried) about their amazingly uninteresting plans, everyone settled down to sleep. 

Two hours later we had to get out in Dover, which we didn't know about (we thought we were getting the tunnel across, and Tanbay was not impressed to be woken up). We got out again for another passport check, and were sniffed by a police dog. It was still a lot smoother than the airport way though. 

Once we'd all got back on the coach, the Americans all sat together so the original 'seating arrangement' was confused. One guy in particular got extremely annoyed, I thought he was going to hit them. I said "don't worry it's only a few minutes until we're on the ferry and we get off again" and then I thought he was going to hit me. 

Luckily (for him) he didn't hit me and we did, indeed, get off the coach a few minutes later and onto the ferry. The ferry itself took two hours and everyone was completely knackered and trying to sleep, but were prevented from doing so by some delightful (annoying) French teenagers. 

We got back on the coach, near the angry guy (who was sat by his girlfriend this time so he was okay). But this time someone else's  seat was taken by the Americans. She yelled at them for about ten minutes. Angry guy thought it was funny.

All in all it was pretty ridiculous. Everyone was very tired and wanted to be sat with their friends/significant others. Fine, I get that - everyone knows that I have to sit by Tanbay. But the whole thing could have been avoided if we'd been given seat numbers (or if everyone chilled out a bit).

But after that (by about 1am) everyone calmed down and slept all the way to Amsterdam.

I'm not going to lie to you and say it was the best night's sleep ever (far from it), but with headphones, an eye mask and a comfy jumper it was not the worst either. 

When we arrived in Amsterdam, we were a little sleep deprived, but we had the thrill of adventure and the knowledge that we just saved a bunch of money. 

Amsterdam itself was epic, definitely one of our favourite cities ever. You can read about it here.

Conclusion: So was it worth it? Should you take the coach from London to Amsterdam? We think you should!  

Despite the sleep deprivation and worry that I'd have to hit a guy in the face, it was all worth it for the money that we saved. 

We would indeed take this journey again (if we needed to) but we would probably consider taking a daytime bus (which elevates the pressure of having to sleep). 

Depending on when we were booking the tickets, we would also consider taking a plane too..  

But overal we are convinced that the coach is a fun, cheap option. 

Tips in case you want to try it out for yourself:

• Make sure you've got enough clothes - the warmer you are the more likely you are to sleep, or I am anyway..
• Take eye masks and headphones - light to pack but so annoying when you don't have them
• Take a bottle of water - personally I don't use coach toilets but they do have loos on the ferry :) 

Would you make this journey? Let us know!

House Sitting in England - is it Different to Sitting in Australia?

After nine months house sitting in Australia, we were keen to try it in my own home country (England). So we did. We did it in the Forest of Dean (South West) which is looking very good at the moment:

We wanted to do a post about the differences between house sitting in Australia and house sitting in England, but really the differences are more about the countries themselves than the houses. And anyway, each house sit is different in their own unique way it all depends on the pets / home owners /  house / location, so many things. So instead of doing a post about the differences, we decided to do one on the firsts in house sitting for us:

Sheep 

Never had we ever looked after sheep before. In the end it turned out that they were easier than cats and loads easier than dogs. They basically look after themselves! During the summer they eat the grass in the field so you don't have to feed them (or mow the garden), they put themselves to bed at night too. What I'm feeding them in the above picture is sheep nuts, which is a treat for sheep, so they only get a tiny amount at this time of year.  They went mad for it and were very eager to eat it. Other than that it was just moving the mineral block every morning. 

However, saying how easy they were I'm sure they would have been a lot more work than dogs/cats if they had needed a vet - you can hardly get them into a carrier and into the car! But luckily no such kerfuffle occurred. 

If we had the house/land we think we would have sheep. They keep the lawn tidy (ish) and definitely have distinct personalities! However, I think to start off with we'd have dogs and.. 

Chickens!

Again a house sitting first for us and again an easy one. The chickens were a bit more work than the sheep, but not much and they gave us rewards (eggs). Chickens are usually fed once or twice a day, in the summer they need less as they dig around for worms and things. Again they put themselves to bed at night and we just had to lock them in so the fox wouldn't get them. Talking of foxes...

Foxes and Badgers 

This was the first time Tanbay had seen them in the wild.

The house also had two sweet cats, but that wasn't a first for us.

So there you have it, house sitting in England isn't that different from house sitting anywhere else, looking after chickens and sheep is more rewarding than it is taxing :) and foxes and badgers are always great.

P.S. We got all of our house sits from www.Trustedhousesitter.com

Stonehenge and Salisbury

The Stonehenge you can see today is about 4,000 years old. I think for that reason alone 'visiting Stonehenge' should be top of your British bucket list, but you know you better than I do, so don't let me force you. As Salisbury is it's closest city, with such a gorgeous cathedral, my recommendation is that you visit Salisbury too.

Stonehenge

So Stonehenge; older than The Parthenon, the Easter Island Statues and the Great Wall of China it's definitely worth a look. They've revamped the site in the last few years - the ticket area and parking is now a couple of miles away from it. It costs £14 to get in, which I think is quite a lot, however the money is used to maintain not just Stonehenge's area, but also other English heritage sites across Britain. As Stonehenge makes the most money, it has to support the others - like a husband in the 50s. (We actually got in for FREE because my dad has a heritage card) 

You can walk the two miles to stonehenge, or take one of the jurassic park type 4 by 4s:

they go really slowly, but also really regularly.

Anyway, here it is:

Stonehenge!

There are always quite a few people here, but as the area is quite vast it doesn't feel crowded or touristy. We didn't have to wait to get a section that was free from people to get an iconic photo:

There is a rope around Stonehenge which is well thought out, the rope is more oval than circle, so at certain points you're really far away:

and at other points you're really close up: 

which makes for a more interesting walk around the edge. The rope is inoffensive too, it's not a nasty 'we don't trust you barbed wire and concrete' barrier, it's just a rope. You could easily jump over it, which lots of people do to try and hug the stones - then they get chucked out by security. If you really really want to get in, and don't want to be chucked out, you can get a group of people together and book a private Stonehenge tour in the morning, or in the evening during summertime - there is a waiting list though. 

You can get the 4 by 4s back, or you can walk. If you walk you get to see the round barrows where they used to bury their dead:

There are also two big ditches called the cursus, and they don't know what they were used for, but they are super super old (nearly 6,000 years old):

it's just that flattened bit of grass 

At Stonehenge's visitor centre there are also toilets (clean), a gift shop (stuffed toy crows), a restaurant (£4 sandwich) and a really informative exhibition centre.

The exhibition centre is really well thought out, you enter a room and surrounding you on the walls is a projection of the stones, so you can watch them change throughout time.

Our favourite part was when they explained the history of Stonehenge:

At the beginning there was just a circle of blue stones, which looks really creepy, but amazingly the stones came all the way from Wales - a hundred miles away, without a lorry! Later on they added the big stones that you see today, and over time a few of these fell over/were nicked. They also incorporated the earlier blue stones into today's layout - though to us they looked grey.

The other thing that the wall projection shows you is how the stones are perfectly positioned for the shortest (and longest) days of the year. On the shortest day (Dec 21st, also known as winter solstice) the sun sets between the biggest stones.

This midwinter sun sets exactly opposite to where the midsummer sun rises, so on the longest day of the year (June 21st, summer solstice) the sun rises above the heel stone and into the centre.

This is the heel stone:

For years modern day people have flocked to Stonehenge on the summer solstice, to stay up all night and watch the sun rise. However, archeologists now believe that back in the day, the winter solstice was a lot more important, olden day people would honour their ancestors and pray for the sun to return.

In the exhibition centre there is also a timeline that puts everything in perspective. There are also things that have been collected on site including bones, daggers, pottery and jewellery.

All in all, we enjoyed the stones and hope you do too!

How do you get to Stonehenge?

There are a lot of tours that go to Stonehenge from London/ Bath/ Bristol/ Salisbury. We personally hate tours, they're normally too constricting and annoying - and the British ones are the worst in the world for making up rules that aren't necessary. Plus they are expensive! So alternately there is a train station in Salisbury and from there you can get the bus to stonehenge. This bus costs £14 for just the bus and £26 for bus and entry to Stonehenge. As normal Stonehenge entry costs £14 and you understand that 14+14=28 you should definitely opt for the £26 option. That's still so expensive though, especially if you include however much your train fare was.. So you could just hitch hike for free. I would recommend the hitch hiking, even though we are normally too cowardly to do it.. How did we travel to Stonehenge then? My dad drove us :)

Salisbury

About half an hours drive from Stonehenge is the city Salisbury (pronounced Soulz bury). It's a sweet little place with lots of cute old buildings:

On the way to the cathedral is a nice arch, which is the gateway to the cathedral close:

I really like this photo, it's very British (apart from the German in it):

The spire in the above background is from Salisbury Cathedral. Salisbury Cathedral has the tallest church spire in Britain, the oldest clock in the world, and at the moment the best copy of the Magna Carta. It's also without a doubt the most beautiful British cathedral that I've ever seen (sorry Gloucester). Here it is:

and here's it's spire:

The best out of the four copies of the Magna Carta lives in this cathedral, it dates back to 1215! The Magna Carta is the first bill of rights in the world. I just think it's incredible that we are able to see something from eight hundred years ago. You're not allowed to take photos of it, but I took a photo of a photo of it: 

The Cathedral itself dates from around the same time (1220 onwards) and that's impressive too. This is my favourite part, the cloisters: 

I think it looks a lot like the cloisters in Harry Potter, but according to the internet it's not. Lots of cloisters in the UK look like each other okay!? 

Inside the cathedral, it's gorgeous:  

and there's lots of nice little details everywhere: 

Near the entrance is an infinity pool (also the baptism font) which cleverly reflects the ceiling, so you don't have to crane your neck:

This is the oldest clock in the world, it doesn't have a face but it dates about 1386 and still works - by ringing a bell on the hour every hour!

Just as we were leaving, a tour guide started talking to us and insisted on showing us this water gauge: 

Salisbury Cathedral was built on a high water table, but as the foundations are made of flint that's a good thing - without the flint the cathedral would sink, and without the water the flint would shift. It's like magic! She lifted this metal square, stuck a wooden pole in and showed us that the water was only 3 ft below us. 

Edward Heath, one of Britain's Prime-ministers is buried in the cathedral: 

The tall spire on the top was added on after the main building was built and as a consequence the pillars lean: 

It was really nice of the lady to teach us so much, she was very knowledgeable. 

We really enjoyed Stonehenge and Salisbury, and hope you do too! Whilst you're in the area we highly recommend that you check out Dorset and stay with Dream Cottages Dorset. 

Top Things to do in Birmingham

Poor Birmingham, it has an undeserved poor reputation. Southerns think it's in the North and Northerns think it's in the South (I'm Southern, so I can tell you Birmingham is actually in the North). 

Birmingham used to stand for dirty, dangerous, rough, grimy and everything everyone hates about England, it was also Tolkien's inspiration for Mordor - apparently. But since Tolkien's time, Birmingham has had a lot of money pumped into it (i.e. the Bullring) and is now a hub of culture, a haven for foodies and a perfect mix of historical buildings and brand-spanking-new ones. 

Birmingham is actually Britain's second city (no it's not Manchester) and is a must for anyone who comes to Britain and  makes it out of London. 

But what should you do there?

Visit the University 

It's the only university in Britain with it's own train station, so it's very easy for you to hop off on your way into the city. The architecture is stunning and it's a red brick university. 

The clock tower is the tallest free standing clock tower in the world and yes, it's bigger than Big Ben. They actually sell shirts at the university which say 'My clock is much bigger than yours' or something like that. He's called Old Joe and he inspired J.R.R. Tolkien who went to school next door (don't you see the resemblance between Old Joe and the big eye thing in LOTR)? 

There are so many books in the library that if you pilled them all up the pile would reach the moon! Thus the library is sinking a bit..  

Can you tell that I used to be a tour guide for the university?

The Bullring/ Bull Ring

The easiest and most popular place to shop in Birmingham is in the Bullring. To confuse you, the Bullring is located in the Bull Ring - an important historical landmark. Like most things in Birmingham the Bull Ring started off as something illegal (in this case an illegal market).

The Bullring is easily identifiable by the sexiest bull that I've ever seen. They normally dress him up accordingly - during the olympics he patriotically wore a British flag as a jumper, at Christmas he wore a jolly santa costume, and here he is in Spring looking macho:

The Bullring has over 160 shops inside it. Personally we don't like any of them. They are cloney and boring. Okay, okay there is one shop that we like: Selfridges. There are only four Selfridges in the world and they sell very expensive fancy things. On the bottom floor though there is the food section where it's great to browse around - and if you're lucky they will have free samples/ reduced the nearly out of date stuff to normal human prices. There is also a great alcohol section which features every type of alcohol ever, including the alcohol with bits of gold in it. You can also create your own cocktails there. 

St Martin's Church

Make sure that you pass St Martin's Church.  It's located right in the centre of the Bull Ring (so in the middle of the Bullring). I always found that it was a great, tasteful and ancient oasis inside the modern Bullring: 

It was built in 1873. We never went inside, even though I used to pass it like four times a week on the way to kickboxing or fruit and veg shopping. Visitors are welcome though and we will definitely go there when we're back in Birmingham. 

Birmingham Bull Ring Markets

Bull Ring Open Market

Located near the old Bull Ring, the markets are incredibly fun, or at least I think so. Tanbay and my sister both hated them. It's like being transported into another, more vibrant country. You can most definitely barter with the prices and get the fruit and veg you want for the prices you actually want (i.e. a lot cheaper than Tesco). 

Be warned though, if you are a white female with (dyed) blonde hair, like myself, you may get a lot of unwanted attention, but if you're lucky it may work in your favour: One veg guy used to give me free strawberries, and although it was completely creepy, free food is free food. 

Also, don't buy any of the dairy products. That tip isn't really specific to the Bull Ring Open Market it's for outdoor markets in general - do you really want dairy products that have been sat out in the sun?

The Open Market is open 9-5 Tuesday to Saturday. The later you go the more likely they are to bring the prices down. They normally do a big bowl of fruit or veg for a quid, but nearer the end it's not worth them taking it home so they'll do two or three bowls for a quid. Bargain. 

Bull Ring Indoor Market

We never had much luck in the indoor market. There's lots of meat and fish but it often smells kind of funky and the sellers are even dodgier than the fruit and veg sellers. HOWEVER, they do sell roasted cashew nuts quite cheaply and are yummy. 

FOOD

There are loads of excellent places to eat in Birmingham and it's not all curry (though the curry is the best in Britain). 

The Bullring has a hundred restaurants to eat in - each more cloney than the last. We don't like the Bullring or it's cloney shops, but even we'll admit that we're partial to Wagamamas and Cafe Rouge. If you have never been to a city in the UK, Wagamamas is Japanesish food and Cafe Rouge is Frenchish. Wagamamas is pretty cheap and Cafe Rouge often have vouchers which makes it cheaper.

Our favourites restaurants in Birmingham were not in the Bullring though. They were Wok Your Way Noodle Bar and San Carlo. Wok Your Way is located next to the train station and serves cheap and tasty noodles. You can watch them prepare them right in front of you. It's quick and delicious. San Carlo is a lot more expensive but serves the most beautiful Italian food. Yum. 

Cafe Deli is pretty good too!

The Custard Factory 

A 20 minute walk out of town gives you some impressive ever changing, free to view, modern art work and some great vintage clothes shops. The clothes shops are really great. Also there's a bead shop. Tanbay bought me a 3p bead once (true love). Here's some of that great art: 

I am also pretty sure (though I've never been) that there are clubbing type things at night. 

Birmingham Art Gallery 

Whilst small, it has a lot of variety and some great pieces here.  Compared to the National Gallery in London it's complete rubbish, but if you haven't been to that, I think you may be impressed by this. They have good temporary exhibits too - they had some of the ancient egyptian stuff and they had the Saxon gold too at one point. 

Chinese Quarter in Birmingham

We LOVE the Chinese Quarter/ China Town in Birmingham. There are authentic restaurants and shops there. They have a supermarket type store where we used to buy our noodles. They are much cheaper and nicer than tescos. We only ever went to one of the restaurants there, it was all you can eat. 

Jewellery Quarter

Over 40% of British jewellery is made in the jewellery quarter. We had a fun day walking around, we had an amazing Italian lunch and then went and pretended that we were engaged (this was before we actually were). They let me try on the rings and taught us a little about the cuts, clarities and other things.

Catch Some Classical Music

Okay the granny in me is showing her face again, but I don't know what you're into, and if you do like classical music and first class musicians, Birmingham has a lot to offer you. Go to the Birmingham Conservatoire where I saw Benjamin Grosvenor or the Birmingham Symphony Hall where we saw the CBSO, they do the best Christmas concert: 

Birmingham's Broad Street 

I'll be the first to admit that clubbing isn't really my thing. I literally went clubbing twice whilst I was at uni. However, I do know that Broad Street is the place to go if you want clubs and clubbing and a disgusting night out. The two clubs that I've been to were Gatecrasher (biggest club in Birmingham) and Oceania? Is that still around? Let me know.  

I have actually heard good things about snobs.. I've never been but I trust the people who've told me. Lol.

Essentially though we're probably the wrong people to ask. But with at least three universities in Birmingham, there are a lot of people to ask. 

Parades along New Street

We used to have a beautiful and amazing apartment in the centre of Birmingham, but whilst it was beautiful and the best place ever to live, it was also very expensive so we used to spend a lot of time doing free things. One of the best free things to do in Birmingham is to watch a parade. We saw the Christmas parade, the neo nazi parade, the pro muslim parade (those two actually clashed there was police everywhere), the Easter parade and an anti David Cameron parade. But by far the best parade was the Gay Pride Parade!

There were lots of Adam and Steves, Annas and Eves, drag queens, people on stilts, people dressed as rainbows and lots and lots of fit gay guys without shirts (yum). There were also people not dressed up at all and some who'd clearly walked off the street to show their support :) 

I'll tell you another thing, which you can choose to interpret anyway you like. Throughout all of the parades that we watched not one person looked up and saw us on the balcony - until the Gay Pride Parade and loads of them looked up at us and waved!! 

The Mailbox

The Mailbox is the less crowded much more expensive version of the Bullring (thus better ;) ). Saying that though there are some nice cheap eateries especially at lunchtime. Plus the BBC lives there and you can get your photo taken with the Tardis. 

The Mailbox is also the start of one of Birmingham's greatest bits which I've almost forgotten about.. 

The Canals 

There are loads of canals in Birmingham - 160 miles of canals. The train that runs from Birmingham centre to University runs directly next to the canal and on a good day it looks quite pretty. (If you're taking the train into Birmingham from the south you will no doubt be on that line). 

I have a funny story about the canals which, if you've seen them / do see them you might find funny too: A guy at the university took magic mushrooms and then went for a walk along the canals and thought he saw the Northern Lights. Ha ha. I didn't know this person and now can't even remember who it was who knew this person and told me about it, but whatever. 

The canals look particularly impressive in winter when they freeze. Please don't go skating on them and die. 

Birmingham Frankfurt Christmas Market

This market is actually really good and pretty German. The mullled wine is extremely good and perfect for when it's cold (which it always is in Decemeber). It runs along New Street up into Victoria Square. It gets bigger every year and is now the largest outdoor Christmas market in Britain. You can get authentic German beer and sausages here too, plus you can talk to the extremely defensive guy who sells reindeer pelts.

Anything else?

I don't normally recommend other people, because I am the best person, but if you need more convincing that Birmingham is beautiful check out Verity Milligan, she's a genius! If you love Birmingham and feel like we've missed anything out (or have anything to add) just let us know!