Shopping in Birmingham and Willy Wonka -esque

On Sunday we took a short train ride to Birmingham. It is the second largest city in England and is supposedly the largest retail center in Europe. The BullRing is the famous shopping center there and is several floors of great shops. It was pretty crazy with all of the Christmas shoppers out but we managed to scour the three floors and leave without spending too much money. Birmingham is also known for its German Christmas market which runs through most of Nov and Dec each year. It was pretty cool with all sorts of German food and craft vendors but was an absolute zoo. We got our fix of German cuisine there.We didn't have time on Sunday to see everything in Birmingham so we went back today (Wed). There was nothing on our schedule for work today so we decided that a little day trip would be much more fun than sitting at our flat studying. We went to Cadbury World where all the Cadbury chocolate is made and packaged. It was a pretty neat tour and we got free chocolate so it was well worth the trip. There were mostly elementary school groups there so Krissi and I really stuck out as the big kids walking around the place. After Cadbury World, we took the train back into downtown Birmingham, walked through the German market again, this time a little more comfortably, and then went to the Mailbox. It is a huge red building filled with upscale shops. We felt a little out of place in our ski jackets and tennis shoes but still had a good time looking and pretending. So it's back to work tomorrow for two more days, then London this weekend!