outside looking in

Brindley Place / Birmingham, United Kingdom
I spend a good bit of time in Birmingham for work reasons. While the city continues to shake its reputation as a dirty, dangerous, working class sort of place my impression of it is a revitalized, vibrant, multi-cultural center of the West Midlands with a good bit to offer. OK - so it's not London - but it doesn't try to be. A tremendous amount of investment has taken place in the city centre over the past 5-10 years and it is now teeming with restaurants, clubs and shops; many of which are situated dockside to the miles of picturesque canals threading through the city. It's a fun place. Did you know that Birmingham has more canals than Venice and more trees per person than any other city in Europe (neither of which I can substantiate but facts which I don't find totally unbelievable). And..the evening view of downtown from the outside deck is pretty good.