Two hours in Birmingham on a Sunday afternoon. What would you do?

[Opihr]

Going tomorrow. A friend and I have a couple of hours to amuse ourselves. Arriving on the train. Don’t want to go shopping.

Any ideas?

Go to the Ikon gallery and take the lift. It’s a whimsical delight

I love the Ikon gallery lift, it makes me smile every time.

The OP has 2 hours. It's not like she's going to explore Sparkhill 🙄

Go to Clays and do virtual clay shooting with real decommissioned guns. Have a cocktail and some of their bao buns. It's a couple of minutes walk. Otherwise as others have said Chinatown buffet is a good bet or a walk and the library including their nice cafe. There are quite a lot of places to eat actually connected to the station as it leads onto a mall type arrangement. The cat cafe is also in there

@SonoPazziQuestiRomaniThat wasn’t necessarily to the op about avoiding the outskirts, rather anyone not from Birmingham who happened to read the thread !

Rex Johnson is a lovely little shop with very friendly staff. Opposite that is Roberts which has also been in Birmingham for years.

I dunno. There was a big Reform conference recently.

Maybe have a tour of Villa Park or St Andrews. Bit of shopping in the club fanstore. The Hawthorns is along the Holyhead Rd which would be lovely to stop at one of the quaint pubs leading up to it.

If you’ve only got two hours you will need to stick to the city centre. I’d either wander down to the JQ (or take the tram) or along the canals to Brindley Place via the Mailbox. Have a coffee or a drink somewhere and wander back. You don’t really have time to be investigating museums and the such.

Oh, and editing to say that the bin situation is grim in some areas where people are piling their rubbish up instead of taking the many options to dispose of it responsibly, City centre is fine.

None of which the OP is going to travel to, take in, and travel back from in 2 hours.

(or take the tram)

Amazingly, it is possible to stand in certain places in the city centre and get a photo that makes it look like Switzerland or somewhere equally uber-European.

How can you not love a city with trams clanking through every few minutes ?

One day I must go on one 😀

Why not ?

Leave 2 hours earlier

Spend forty minutes on the train to Stratford instead? I'm a brummie and honestly, the place is an absolute shit hole.

I hope the OP comes back to tell us she had a perfectly nice couple of hours in the city - with no sightings of rats.

Do the maths.

Even, in the very unlikely event she could book a tour of one of the grounds at the precise time she wanted to (pretty big "if"), she'd need to find public transport from the City Centre to whichever ground, in a City she isn't familiar with, on a Sunday.
Then return again.
I'm presuming the tour would last at least an hour.
she only has 2 hours in total.

I had a whole day from 10 til 5 a couple of weeks ago, had a lovely wander around, couple of museums, back to backs, nice lunch and no rubbish or rats.

I'm firmly of the belief that a nice day out is possible just about anywhere and Birmingham didn't disappoint.

she'd need to find public transport from the City Centre to whichever ground, in a City she isn't familiar with, on a Sunday.

You can cross the city in an Uber in 30 minutes on a Sunday. Halesowen to Sutton.

Okay, but (I've just checked) a tour of Villa Park is 90mins. Leaves it a bit tight, don't you think, adding on being there to register, and waiting for the Uber, etc ?
(This is, even if the OP were interested in a tour of the ground).

It was a pretty random suggestion for something for the OP to do with her friend for when she didn't say anything about being a football fan, irrespective of how long the tour is!

If you want something different and it appeals go to Toca Social in the bullring!

Perhaps random but ..museums and galleries are always the go to response so try something a bit different?

Do they have time machines there for the OP's trip to Birmingham earlier today?

I live here and can genuinely say it’s not worth a visit
Sutton town centre is utter misery.