Cadbury World

Our last field trip of the term was to Cadbury World in Birmingham, or to be more precise Bournville.  Originally, we had planned to go to Stratford-Upon-Avon, but there wasn't a lot of enthusiasm for that option.  We discussed it at our weekly seminar meeting and by majority vote decided Cadbury World was a better option.  Not only was there chocolate in the works, the annual Frankfurt Christmas Fair was taking place at the same time--so we could get two field trips in one.

We boarded the train for Birmingham and made it to the factory in no time at all.  The purple color of the Bournville train station gate is clearly tied to the Cadbury image.

It's a short walk from the train station to the factory.

The Cadbury campus is quite large.  This building is actually quite a ways from the entrance to Cadbury World per se, but the signage was clear.

Finally we arrived at our destination.

We hung out in the shop for a while.

There were some really attractive items such as these:

but there were also a few odd pieces such as these items, called "bespoke" shoes:

I've seen these at one of our local chocolate shops as well.  Frankly, I don't get it.  They're pretty, I guess, but why shoes?

Still, the shoes made more sense to me than these promotional strategies:

It's hard to read, but it says "Because the lady loves Milk Tray".  This one is frankly a bit disturbing:

I'll never eat another chocolate bunny.  I'll always see this seductive rabbit in my head.

The tour offers a history lesson on chocolate

and then the Cadbury factory itself.

The tour included "static sets, animatronics, video presentations, multi-sensory cinema, interactive displays and activities, and staff demonstrations."  More importantly for the chocoholics among us were the samples.  My personal favorite were the melted chocolate in cups.  Very, very tasty.  There were also some fun constructions.

I had a particular affinity for the advertising displays.

My husband and I treated ourselves to a cup of Cadbury's Hot Chocolate.  It was good, but the Ho Cho at the Chocolate Deli in Worcester is better---just sayin'...

Once we left, we headed back to Birmingham New Street where we found the Frankfurt Christmas Fair.  New Street had displays for about six or seven city block lengths.

This was a beer garden, but most of the sites were Christmas related:

There were also many food vendors with a German link.

We bought a hot dog and were then ready to head back to Worcester.

Within a week, we had an opportunity to compare the Birmingham Frankfurt Fair with the Worcester Christmas Fayre.