Black Country excursions

Two weeks ago, I spent the week at my cousins' house in a suburb of Birmingham, England. Every day, I went for a new walk in the Lickey Hills or another excursion to the places that are pictured below. The photos show: Tolkien's cottage in the area, the Cadbury factory, New College at Oxford, where Harry and I went to visit my friend Sarah, and a thatched-roof cottage from the Cotswolds area, where my uncle took my parents and me to a beautiful tourist town called Chippen.

The entire area surrounding the City of Birmingham is called the Black Country for the time during and following the Industrial Revolution when the entire sky was black with soot. Over the past generation, the city has been revitalized. Today, huge immigrant populations are changing the face of the city, notably those from India, Pakistan, China, and Jamaica, according to my observation over a week :) It is to say that it is a rainbow city, where you can find good, spicy food around every corner. A very different England even from that of my childhood!