Getting to Birmingham
I went to Birmingham yesterday, and it was much harder than it should have been. I'm not sure how far away it is, 100 miles maybe? So the obviously choice is to go by train, as it is usually trouble free, and it plonks you right in the centre of town (albeit at the worst station in the country). The thing is, I was going to the opera, one of those five and a half hour long Wagner epics, so it wouldn't finish until after the last train back to Sheffield (which was 9:30pm or something ridiculous). So, I thought: I really really don't want to have to drive into the centre of Birmingham, so I'll look for a Park & Ride. The thing is, all I could find on the internet was press releases telling you how great their park and ride is, but nothing actually telling me how to make use of this allegedly excellent service.So I bit the bullet and went by car. Two and a half hours it took me, 45 minutes of which was spent in traffic that was virtually at a standstill on the roads into the centre surrounded by hundreds of other equally polluting cars. I think a better plan, and I really really wish I'd thought of this yesterday, would have been to park at the NEC/Airport and get the train in from Birmingham International. There's bound to be a huge car park there, it probably won't cost any more to park than in the centre (£12 for the 8/9 hours I was there), and is only a 10-15 minute train journey into town. Given that on a couple of occasions I've done something similar when going to London (parking at Luton Airport Parkway and getting the train in from there) I can't believe I didn't think of it.
So, anyway, once you get there, it's a decent enough place these days, especially if you want to shop, as you basically have the equivalent of both Meadowhall and Sheffield town centre all in the same location.
