Sealife and Brum centre

Thursday we took a trip to Birmingham to the Sealife Centre. We were up early to get to the train station for the 9.38 train to Birmingham. Of course as usual there was nowhere to sit on the train and so we had to stand part of the way until some people got off at Tamworth and we then got to sit down.

We did lose our way a little getting from New street to the Sealife centre. We followed the signs for a while until they seemed to stop but we popped into the central library and asked for directions then we picked up the signposts again.

There was a bit of a queue when we reached the entrance but we didn't have to wait too long. It is always a bit of gamble going in the school holidays as it is full of little kids and families with prams.
One complaint for the day was the price. I had checked on the website before going and it said it was £9.95 for Adults and £6.95 for children but once I got to the till it turned out to be £15 for Adults and £10 for kids. I wasn't happy as this left me no money to get lunch.

The place hasn't really changed much since the last time we went. You go round by a certain path that takes you past all the attractions. First off is a small tank of of small fish then it takes you round past a tall cylinder tank full of corals and lots of colourful fish big and small.


We got stuck in a bit of a traffic jam here. There was a group of nursery children all decked out in fluorescent jackets and a family with about 3 pushchairs. We managed to squeeze past them to move on to the large tank that was filled with Sharks and Rays. We stayed here for quite a while as they were fascinating as they seemed to put on a show swimming around so that everyone looking in could see them. We took pictures and videos although they did move very fast.


The next bit was the Coral cave and Nemo & Friends. This was wonderful as all the tanks were full of the fish from the "Finding Nemo" movie. Is it really sad that me and my teenage children knew all the names and got excited when we spotted them?

There was an Octopus in it's own little enclosure. The light was red so I wonder if that is the only light it can stand.


Then we came to the huge tank with the Rays. There was a woman giveing a talk but I couldn't make out anything she was saying as the microphone was turned up too loud and it was mostly all just noise. We seemed to be going around at the same pace as the group of little children so couldn't always get close enough to see.


The most intersting part of the tour for me was the Seahorse exhibit. There were lots of different colours and I was able to get right in close for photos. You have to admit they don't even look real but they are all real Seahorses.


Next was the Otters. I remember the last time we came they were insistent on staying asleep but this time we actually got to see them playing. It was funny as they are just like kittens as they play around with each other.


The main biggest attraction is the Turtle sanctuary and you have to go down in a lift to this. There is a huge stone turtle when you get out of the lift but then there is this mirror maze which was hilarious. I was just following the people in front and then we ended up at a dead end and seemed to be going round in circles. We did get out finally much to my relief.

The end of the line is the tunnel under the biggest tank which houses 2 giant Turtles some sharks and lots of other species of fish. There was a talk going on here so we stayed for a while to listen. It was very interesting as she told us about the origins of the 2 Giant turtles as well as a few of the other fish.


The tunnel leads out into the shop which is as always the end of the line ("Don't forget to visit the gift shop on the way out")

I was quite disappointed as we had done the whole thing in 1 hour. If I had had money for lunch we could have stayed for a while and gone back round to catch feeding times but the food prices were too high and we were all too hungry to just wait for the animal feeding times anyway so we decided to leave.

I did have with me our book of Subway vouchers so we went in search of a Subway in Brum and to take wander round the city.

Something I couldn't get over was that right in the middle of the centre of town outside the council house was a beach. We had passed it in the morning on the way the the Sealife centre and it was deserted but by lunchtime it was packed. There were deckchairs and real sand and a beach bar and even the sound of waves crashing on the shore coming from the PA system.

There was another beach set up outside the Bullring centre too where there were more deckchairs.

We had a walk round all 3 floors of the Bullring and a wander around the Rag market before heading off back to New Street Station to catch the train home...Oh and you guessed it, no seats on the train home either. In fact it was so full that we were just packed into the vestibules like Sardines. I wasn't happy especially as we had to stand by the only working toilet on the train.

I was sure glad to reach home!