Birmingham (and absinthe chocolate...)

So Sunday went to Birmingham, England's second largest city with around 970,000 population. And the largest collection of Burne-Jones artwork in the world! As one of my two favourite artists - the other is Gustave Moreau - I thought I had to check it out.

Then too I found out it was the home of Cadburyworld! Which is to do with my first photo though it was towards the end of the day. Those buildings are part of the huge factory complex at Bournville where the first Cadbury factory was established. They now have two more at Chirk and just outside Bristol. Interesting to hear the history of the company. The Cadburys were Quakers who originally sold tea, coffee, and cocoa as moral alternatives to alcohol. (They wouldn't have approved of appearing in a post together with absinthe! How we can desecrate even the most moral of goods.) Also they were very big on the late Victorian worker's welfare push, building the village of Bournville for their workers, together with sports fields, swimming pools, establishing a pensions scheme...I think Ruskin would have been proud! Also great was the free chocolate including a cup of warm liquid chocolate at the end.

Since the visit I've resolved to make chocolate part of my everday life.

Going backwards chronologically there's a photo of New Street, one of the main shopping malls in Birmingham which leads from the train station to the Art gallery. I'm actually walking away from the art towards the train in the shot.

Then there's the symphony hall. LOVE this building! Fantastic example of brutalism, all space age and concrete. We need more structures like this in the world. It might not then be a happier place but would certainly be more like a '50s comic book or Molesworth's conception of the future. Unfortunately I don't think that's going to happen any time soon.

Then directly opposite the symphony hall (my back was turned to it in taking the previous photo) is the Council Building which is now the art gallery. It was unbelievably brilliant to see more real life Burne-Jones and Pre-Raphaelite works. All the paintings I've looked at in books for years now! Spent about two hours there before I had to rush off to Cadburyworld for my prebooked tour.

And then last but most certainly not least is my absinthe chocolate. I picked this up on Saturday at the Arab Coffee Shop I've described in a previous post. It's awesome. I thought it might just be liquorice-ey but when I tried i today it really tasted like an absinthe chaser to dark chocolate (it's 75%). Will definitely be eating more of this!