brum by bus

Have you already watched Brum?

it’s a cartoon about the adventures of a little car in the streets of Birmingham, of course.Just as Brum I am pretty much enjoy to adventure myself through this city. The only difference is that I can do it here by bus!





It maybe sounds a bit cheesy but I still like those double Decker sightseeing’s in the cities I am visiting. In this case, living. Luckily, we have one service like this in Birmingham, and plus, it’s for free.

Yes, the Historic Bus tours starts from the Museums at Victoria Square, on Edmund Street to be exactly. The journey through eight stops takes about 3 hours, ish. You can get off the bus any stop your choice having exactly one hour to visit the place you choose.

I do confess I skipped the “Pen Room” during this trip, a museum about story of Birmingham’s pen trade. But I already been there weeks later and I can tell you it is a nice experience to know and understand about pen-trade
of Birmingham.





I also believe its not necessary one hour to visit The Aston Manor Transport Museum even if you are a “vintage buses lover”. I spent some time talking to someone who works there and it’s was pretty much interesting to know about the transport in Brum, but I confess that the smell of diesel in the place makes you a bit dizzy. Anyway it’s nice to pop up there and give them some kind of money help ( any change) because the museum is kept by the enthusiasm of people who likes and collect buses.

Nothing to do with transport but if you like football you can cross the street and pay a quickie visit to Aston Villa stadium, Villa Park. It’s about history as well.

The Aston Hall would be our next stop but it is closed until August so we go right to The Soho House, also known as Mathews Bolton’s house. Particularly, my favourite museum in Birmingham. And If you are not sure who Matthew Bolton is please don’t miss the chance of click on his name to find out more about this amazing brummie.







The Soho House itself is just gorgeous. All its rooms amazingly designed of this 19th construction invites you to spend more than just one hour there to experience a bit of the history of Birmingham industry and also know more about the fantastic lunar society meetings that happened in the house between 1765 and 1813.

I also skipped Sarehole Mill, as known as inspiring location for Tolkien’s character and also mentioned in the Lord of The Rings. I didn’t visit this during this tour because I would never have chance to see all spots if I would stop in each one of the eight stops. I truly recommend you to do the tour twice because it is impossible to catch up with everything in just one journey!

I didn’t visit Sarehole Mill but I had a wicked moment at the bus trying to catch up with the tour guide’s jokes about Birmingham life and I also had my brit pop culture updated when I just was informed by the same guide ladies that we were passing by the street where John Taylor from Duran Duran used to study. It made my day, to be quite honest. Nostalgic but honest!





And finally we arrived at the last stop of the trip, The Blakesley Hall. The nice timber-framed building (that Shakespeare sort of house) that is also an great reason to have a nice coffee (and also a slice of coffee cake if you are an addicted as I am) at its Tea Room. You couldn’t imagine that near the city centre you can find a farmland spot from more than 500 years ago.

This is a great reason to visit Blakesley Hall and also all landmarks which Historic Bus drops you off. Just remember that the tours will happen in the first Sundays of each month until this October.