Five cool things to do in Birmingham:

1. Indulge your inner chocoholic at Cadbury World, a museum devoted entirely to chocolate on the outskirts of the city in George Cadbury's pioneering new town, Bournville.

2. Put some sparkle in your life with a walk in the Jewellery Quarter where jewelry has been made and sold for more than 250 years.

3. Leave the past behind at the IKON Gallery, a stunning center for modern and contemporary art.

4. Follow the Tolkien Trail to see the places and buildings that inspired the Hobbit and Lord of the Rings. Maps are available from the Tourism Centre & Ticketshop,The Rotunda, 150 New Street, Birmingham, B2 4PA

5. Shop, shop, shop! Birmingham is a huge retail center with some of the UK's top shops. Since 2000, hundreds of millions of pounds have been invested in Birmingham's shopping precincts. Try the recently opened, £500 million Bull Ring, and the fabulous designer shops in The Mailbox.

Best Balti - Balti is a punjabi style of cooking that originated in the ethnic neighborhoods of Birmingham. Locals recently voted Al Frash as one of five restaurants representing the city in a Curry Capital of Britain competition.

Some surprising Birmingham literary connections:

• J.R.R. Tolkien arrived in Manchester as a three-year old and grew up there. He and his brother played around the restored Sarehole Mill and in a nearby dense, boggy woodland known as Mosely Bog. This is widely accepted to be the inspiration behind the Old Forest. Apparently, the miller, covered as he was in dusty flour, was the inspiration for Gandalf.
  

• Washington Irving: One of America's first important writers, created the American classics, The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, and Rip Van Winkle, while staying with his sister in Birmingham. Irving was the first American writer with a wide following in England.

• Birmingham's music:
  Birmingham may be the birthplace of heavy metal. Both Judas Priest and Black Sabbath, were local bands. These other bands also hail from Birmingham or got their big breaks there -
  • Duran Duran
  • The Electric Light Orchestra(ELO)
  • UB40

Let's talk Brummie - The Music of Birmingham Speech
Birmingham has its own, distinctive accent and slang, called Brummie or Brum. You've heard it if you've ever tried to make out what Ozzy Osbourne, a Brummie native son, was talking about.

HOW TO BOOK FOR IPEX 2010

For all booking information, please contact Sonia Newell or Marty Knespal at:

Eastern Suburbs Travel,
Suite 501A, Level 5, 332 Oxford St
Bondi Junction NSW 2022

Phone: (02) 9388 0666
Fax: (02) 9388 0555.
Toll Free: 1800 634 714
E-mail:estclovelly@optusnet.com.au