I have spent lots of time talking about fresh air and the countryside but there is so much to see and places to explore in urban areas too.
I live close to the fantastic city of Birmingham and have loads of memories of going in on the train as a child with my mom. She used to work in the city and I vividly remember going with her and seeing in particular the grand looking buildings, museums, double decker buses and the market at the Bull Ring.
I tended to avoid the city in my twenties as it was high on my list of places I wouldn’t visit but now I go in sometimes for shopping and to take the boys to the museums etc.
I don’t know Birmingham that well considering how close I live and it has changed loads over the years, it’s almost unrecognisable to my childhood memories but it’s a great city and there is so much there to see and do. At the Bull Ring now is the famous six tonne bronze sculpture of the Bull which has been rated as one of the top ten public pieces of artwork in the world. It’s very impressive to go and see and is the subject of many photos and selfies, I have a few myself!
Run Of A Kind
I heard about Run Of A Kind from some people from my running club, they had been on a tour and raved about how much they enjoyed it. Run of A Kind was set up by Lucy, a really lovely lady, and to put it simply is a running tour of Birmingham City Centre. I had never heard of a running tour before but it seems they are a ‘thing’ in cities and towns all over the world.
Myself and a few friends from my running group decided to book a tour. It had to be re-arranged due to covid lockdowns but we managed to go on an unseasonably cold day in April (it was snowing when I looked out the window in the morning). Lucy was our tour guide and it started and finished at the famous Bull statue. We ran and saw loads of places covering around seven miles in a little over two hours. We stopped several times and the very knowledgeable Lucy told us loads of interesting (and often funny) facts and we saw loads of cool places. We all live locally and even some people in our group who know Birmingham significantly better than me saw new places and learned loads.
Birmingham is a fantastic city steeped in history with so much to see from the Jewellery Quarter to the canals (one of the well known facts to Brummies is that we have more canals than Venice!) to the super cool Digbeth and everywhere in between. We also visited some of the ‘art’ in the form of Graffiti, some of it is so impressive and we also saw a famous piece of Banksy artwork.
We are currently talking about going on the train back and doing another run of Birmingham as I am sure there are loads more places to see and discover. For those who are local or visiting Birmingham I highly recommend Run Of A Kind. For those who don’t have a running or walking tour in their locality a map and a search on google for some interesting places to see would be a great starting point. Getting out and discovering new places and revisiting old was something we all really enjoyed.
https://www.runofakindbirmingham.com/
My lunchtime walk from the office is around an industrial area with only views of roads, cars, a multistorey car park and the occasional train in the distance but in the past couple of years the grass verges have been seeded with wildflowers, not mowed and the effect is lovely. I am seeing this more and more lately.
Wherever you go – whether you are walking, running, cycling or whatever – look around you and notice things. The little things and the big things, there is so much to see.