Visited 28th July 2011.
Our final pub of the day was only a short distance away but due to the amount of traffic it took a fair while to get there. When we did we found a Pay and Display carpark at the rear of the 'spoons. Handy. We took a couple of photos at the rear of the pub and then ventured inside. An interesting pub but we didn't spend long looking round as we were feeling a little peckish and it was curry club day! We found a table upstairs and then I went back downstairs to place our order, a Korma and Pepsi for Mrs S. and a Madras and Pepsi for myself. When I asked the barman if I could pay twenty pence extra and have a pint of Pepsi I was told in a very surly manner that it was not company policy so no. Come on, almost everywhere does some sort of "Go-Large" deal. Get those tills reprogrammed Tim.
Time to head for home. It's been an interesting couple of days in Birmingham and we know we'll be back.
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Visited 28th July 2011.
Day two of our visit to Birmingham and we spent the morning doing the Cadbury World tour. We both enjoyed it, probably more as we didn't have the children with us, which meant Mrs S. could eat all the chocolate samples. There was so much walking that we both felt ready for a coffee and a chance to put our feet up. That can only mean one thing, time for a 'spoons. We drove for a while and ended up at 'The Pear Tree'. It was a standard, nothing special 'spoons but we were served quickly by a cheerful barmaid and we took our drinks to the rear of the pub where we found a comfy sofa to sit on in the family dining area. Mrs S. had picked a J2o apple and mango drink while I thought I would try a pint of Lightoak from the Wetheroak Brewery. This was a bit of a mistake as it turned out I didn't like the flavour and was unable to finish it. Never mind, it's the chance you take as a beer drinker, on to the next pub.
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Visited 27th July 2011.
Around the corner we found 'The Imperial'. The entrance, while impressive and exciting looking on its own doesn't do justice to the spectacular interior. Unfortunately neither do my photos as they were taken on my phone which proved to perform better than my camera but not "betterer" enough. We had arrived near to closing time and it was quiet, which did mean that we got served very quickly. I had a Pepsi with Mrs S.opting for the Disaronno and Pepsi once again. We went and sat upstairs messing up one of the wet and very recently washed tables. I can imagine a great atmosphere in there when it's crowded but sadly for us it wasn't so we felt we weren't seeing the place at its best, compounded perhaps by having just left a much livelier pub around the corner.
A big day ahead of us tomorrow (we are off to visit Cadbury World) so it's time to head back to the hotel to try and sleep off all the Pepsi...
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Visited 27th July 2011.
The hotel turned out to be in Walsall and was fine. The deal we were getting meant that we ate at the hotel and it seemed a bit odd visiting all those 'spoons and not actually eating in one. Dinner over and we thought that as we were so close why not check out the two 'spoons in Walsall. As it turned out they were the best two of the day. First on the list was 'The Imperial'. As it turned out we found 'St. Matthew's Hall' first. Mrs S. didn't believe me when I said it was a 'spoons and refused to come in, it turned out she thought I was walking into the local town hall. Inside it was big and busy. We ordered a couple of large lattes and went and found a quieter place to sit which turned out to be in the dance area. The bar staff told us that the pub had only been open a few days and was proving to be very popular. When they found out about our quest they were very keen on telling us the best way to get to all the local and quite a few not so local Wetherspoons. They were even able to tell us that 'The Imperial' was literally just around the corner. We finished our coffees, left and went around the corner...
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Visited 27th July 2011.
This time we actually thought to ask the bar staff where the next nearest 'spoons was before we left. As it turned out it was only a few hundred meters further along the road. We managed to find this one without incident. 'The Figure of Eight' was a pub in the more traditional Wetherspoons style. Refreshingly cool, dark with plenty of alcoves and bookcases. Mrs S. opted for a large cup of tea while I chose a Buffalo Trace and Pepsi and had ice in my drink this time.
We finished our drinks and found it was time to head back to car. This turned out to be a bit of a mission as we had no clue as to how to get back to it and only half a clue as to where it was. After about thirty minutes of retracing our steps we did thankfully find it. We didn't realise on the day but we were parked only a few hundred meters from another Wetherspoons. If only the maps had been working! Never mind, we knew there were far to many pubs in and around Birmingham for us to visit in the time we had and that we would be returning. Now it's time to find the hotel...
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Visited 27th July 2011.
A shortish walk from Paradise Place takes you to 'The Soloman Cutler. I say shortish because it is if you walk in the correct direction. Unfortunately we were still having problems with our phone maps so it ended up taking a little longer than it should have. I always look for the silver lining and my doctor tells me walking is good for you, so no harm done. At any rate, we found it and headed inside. First port of call, the loos, which were very nice. It is a large pub with a large upstairs area. There were hardly any people in there though and Mrs S. drank her Disaronno and Pepsi in a very peaceful atmosphere. I had a Pepsi. Neither of our drinks had any ice in them as they didn't have any upstairs, but we were told there was ice downstairs if we wanted to go and get some!
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Visited 27th July 2011.
Again, we got a bit lost looking for this one. We ended up walking all round Paradise Forum before we thought of looking inside, duh! By now we were ready for a coffee and ended up having a large latte each. Not much to say about this one, after all it didn't even have a roof.
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Visited 27th July 2011.
Following the success of our last Groupon deal we have signed up for another, this time in Birmingham. Maybe not the first choice of places to go for most people but there are a lot of Wetherspoon pubs in the area so we are quite looking forward to the trip.
Mrs S. has, unusually, done a little homework and found out that Birmingham has a famous shopping centre, "The Bullring" and that it is "vital" we pay it a visit. So we end up having to have a wander around another shopping centre, still the woman knows how to keep me happy and mollifies me with a Krispy Kreme doughnut. Eventually she runs out of money and we get down to business. We are not sure where we are or where the nearest 'spoons to us is. Sadly Google Maps on my phone lets us down as we keep losing the signal. Instead we resort to more traditional techniques and ask a policeman, who directs us to 'The Briar Rose'. We both liked 'The Briar' with its cool, dark interior and its art deco style looks and the who place came across as being clean and with very efficient staff. Mrs S. had a pint of Pepsi with myself opting for a pint of "Old Thumper" from the Ringwood Brewery. We spent a while enjoying the ambiance before setting off in search of our next drink.
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Visited 25th July 2011.
Another drive along roads laden with traffic brought us to Horsham where we parked up and went in search of 'The Lynd Cross'. We had little idea where to start so I popped into a travel agents and asked for directions. Nobody seemed to know where the nearest Wetherspoons was but one lady told us there was "a pub" a short walk away, just head towards the big ball sculpture and you can't miss it. We did and she was quite right, we couldn't miss it and as an added bonus it was the correct pub - result. We had a quick look round inside but ended up sitting outside in the sunshine, me with a pint of Pepsi and Mrs S. with her new favourite, Disaronno and Pepsi. It was a large pub with an interesting layout, but it was to nice to stay indoors. We never did find out what the big ball sculpture was all about. Unfortunately the drive home was fairly tedious as we managed to catch a lot of the rush hour traffic. All in all though, we thought we had made a decent start to our week off.
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Visited 25th July 2011.
We decided to have lunch in Crawley which turned out to be a bit of a longer trip than expected, due to rather a lot of traffic. However we finally made it and settled down to a lunch of lasagna with a side of onion rings and a pint of Pepsi for Mrs S. and a doubled up chicken breast burger and a pint of Hobgoblin for myself. Credit to the barman who tried to upsell every item I asked for, even taking a little ribbing from another customer for doing it. The pub itself was in the standard long, narrow 'spoons style and seemed in need of a little refurbishment, the food also would have benefited from a little more care taken during its preparation as most of it was overcooked, especially the onion rings.
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Visited 25th July 2011.
It's holiday time and what better way to spend it than visiting a few watering holes. Mrs S. had an errand to run in East Grinstead so we decided that was the place to start. I had an hour to kill while waiting for Mrs S. so I went and bought myself a pint of TEA from the High Back Brewery, which turned out to taste fine... Nothing like tea at all! I had the laptop with me intending to write a few emails so I sat in a quiet alcove situated at the far end of the bar. The pub itself was fairly quiet and my alcove was dark. No emails were written and Mrs S. suddenly appeared carrying a large latte. I checked the time and an hour seemed to have passed by. If you ever visit 'The Ounce & Ivy Bush' take care, I believe it may be situated within some kind of twilight zone, alternatively, I suppose I may have just nodded off...
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