Sea Life centre || Strada || Cafe Rouge date - 12/04/13


So, the other day the both of us decided to do something a little different seeing as we were both so bored in the Easter holidays and we ended up going to the National Sea Life centre! We'd both visited the centre before when we were younger, so we thought we might as well go there again. The centre is basically an aquarium but with different activities too such as a touch pool, feeding the fish and rays as well as a maze of mirrors and the best bit.. a 4D cinema!

So we started the day around about 11am, seeing as we had pre-booked our visit to the centre. And we are so glad we did! It was raining in Birmingham (as per usual, nothing new there...) and as we approached the centre we saw a huge queue full of families waiting to get in. But seeing as we pre-booked on the website we were able to get in quickly with our e-ticket(s). As it was during the holidays, we did see a big flock of families with young children which surprisingly didn't affect our visit at all..

We started the visit by walking up towards the touch pool, bear in mind we both haven't been here for more than five years however there wasn't much that had changed..
The touch pool consisted of small fishes, crabs, sea squirts and starfish! There was even an opportunity to touch the starfish within the pool, however due to the amount of little children surrounding us and being curious, we thought we'd give it a miss plus it was a bit cringy!


Thereon, we went further on to see the exotic fishes, where we met the real life Dory and Nemo from Finding Nemo! We also met other sea life such as the lionfish, seahorses and jellyfishes! As well as this, we went to see a pool of various rays where we saw them being fed and they also leapt out the pool to greet us, which we have to admit was a bit scary! But overall an amazing experience...

We then visited the 4D cinema inside the centre, which was new addition to when we previously visited the centre before! I think we both have to admit that the cinema experience was one of the best highlights of the day! Unfortunately, we didn't take any photos during this time but in terms of the video shown about turtles and the startling effects such as real life wind and water effects played in sync with the movie, this part of the centre is definitely a must see!

We then concluded to visit the ocean tunnel then moved onto the maze of mirrors. And even though the maze of mirrors has no connection with sea life whatsoever, it was pretty fun getting confused on which way to go. Again we'd have to say it is another must see within the centre! Overall, we both have to admit we both felt like little young kids when we visited the place! And we'd recommend for anyone to visit because it's a different atmosphere to your usual 'date' :)!

Strada and Cafe Rouge - Mailbox Birmingham

Gotta admit, the visit to the Sea Life centre did leave us quite hungry.. and seeing as we were both in the city centre we thought we'd go somewhere new to eat. After several debates on where to go to eat, we ended up in Strada. Strada is an Italian restaurant, which we both have not been to before and we're always up for trying new things to eat!

When we were seated, we both decided to skip starters and head for mains. From which we ordered braised lamb shank with rosemary and buttery mash and Penne pasta tossed with roasted vegetables and buffalo mozzarella in a tomato sauce. In addition to this, we also ordered a side order of garlic bread.

Overall, in all honesty, the food was satisfactory. We finished our mains and went to see the desert menu, which had very limited choice. So we both made the decision to head elsewhere as we both have a major sweet tooth! This led us to visit Cafe Rouge, also within the Mailbox. Here we decided to order (and share!) both a crème brûlée and the cafe's own specialty sundae which consisted of berries, a berry gelato accompanied with a berry sauce and white chocolate flakes. From our point of view, for desserts or any sweet tooth, Cafe Rouge is a place to visit, especially with the sweet dishes being quite affordable!

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