what have you seen that surpassed your expectations

[Smeraldina Rima]

Solihull.

Having grown up hearing Jasper Carrot's numerous jokes about Solihull I'd always imagined it to be an absolute shithole.  Even the name - Solihull.  But when I first went there, must be 20+ years ago, I was taken aback at how picturesque the town was and how bloody lovely most of the residential areas looked.  I've no doubt it must have some less pretty parts, but I didn't see them (and I've not been back there for years, so things may have changed for the worse in the interim).  The complete opposite of Salisbury, which you imagine would be all lovely and picture-postcard, when in actual fact it's a dump (no offence to anyone that is from or lives in Salisbury - I'm from Bristol, so I can't talk).

Not sure if you're saying that you took it from the fact that Carrott was joking about Solihull that it was meant to be a shithole, or that you thought that his jokes had been about its being a shithole. So on the off chance that this is revelatory, in the Solihull Folk Club bit that comes up first he describes Solihull as a 'very rich suburb on the outskirts of Birmingham, one of those places where there's two cars in the garage and nothing in the fridge'. People either aspire to live there or see those who do in a Hyacinth Bucket kind of way. Case in point: "Silhillians" pronounce the name differently from Brummies, with a long "o".

30th July 2021: Tried a 'case in point'.

[jamiefairlie]

Carrieres des Lumieres

A vast cave near Les Baux de Provence where they display paintings on to the walls, floors, ceiling and pillars of the cave, accompanied by appropriate classical music. It's really captivating and totally immersive.

[Gurke and Hare]

Item 1.  What did they rechristen the area around Affleck's Palace, the 'Southerner's BoHo District' or something?  Liverpool would never countenance that.

Silly names aside, we've just had a whole thread in which various locals documented the architectural damage that's been done to Liverpool in recent years. Manchester's far from innocent in that area, but Liverpool has no cause to look down its nose at Manchester where care of the local heritage is concerned.

[holyzombiejesus]

Item 1.  What did they rechristen the area around Affleck's Palace, the 'Southerner's BoHo District' or something?  Liverpool would never countenance that.

The Northern Quarter? No, Liverpool would never countenance something like that.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knowledge_Quarter,_Liverpool

[Shoulders?-Stomach!]

Hull remains absolutely awful in the residential areas but the centre, old town and marina has had lots of money lavished on it, for the city of culture days and some legacy investment from that. Absolutely grim as fuck outside the core (and tbh even the core has the sense that it is too big to really sustain itself economically).

I still remember the old Paragon Interchange, grey tower blocks from Hull Royal, Anlaby fucking Road, pigeons fighting over stale cum in condoms, the utter breathtaking desolation of the River Hull itself, pubs with stale plastic garish 80s refits selling lager at 99p, dog shit strewn classic hellhole. Early 90s though, it has taken quite a lot for me to slowly swing round to conceding much of the centre is nice now, even the almost constant sewer smell doesn't seem to be as prevalent.

[Shoulders?-Stomach!]

I visited Chester for the first time last September and was pleasantly surprised by most of it, with only middling expectations. Doesn't seem to feature alongside York / Durham / Lincoln in the historic towns discussion but arguably kicks the shit out of Lincoln, has more to do overall than Durham, and isn't far away from York in the overall. Perhaps if Chester Castle is sorted out, landscaped properly, possibly reconstructed you would have a complete ensemble of attractions. Let's see:

The Rows - very distinctive and unusual, fun to go up and down

General High Tudor and mass of mock tudor architecture - not everyone's cup of tea but it gives the place a very clear identity

Roman walls - easy to access and provides so many different views of the town. There is also an ampitheatre and baths that are small scale but nevertheless better than most cities can offer.

Cathedral - a perfectly worthy and impressive effort

Racecourse right next to city centre - Horse racing deffo S4C but it doubles as a park

Riverside - Old bridges, great views

Independent shops - Yes, the market is one eyesore but the options inside are really good

Pubs and range of bars - Very good, I can't remember seeing so many drinking holes in such a compact area and I live in Leeds.

Zoo - expensive, yes, but actually excellent and managed 3 hours around it without even realising and with plenty still to see

Nice leafy, if twatty suburbs - Yes, Chelsea tractor hard wanking crew territory in Hoole but it is green and continually pleasant all the way out to the edge of town.

[Shoulders?-Stomach!]

Here are other cities and towns that were far better in various ways than I was expecting and even from as they were advertised. I will try to keep it in order of biggest positive gap between expectation vs reality.

If you punch me in the liver I will explain why.

Cities

Wrocław, Poland
Sarajevo, Bosnia
Vilnius, Lithuania
Nuremberg, Germany
Ghent, Belgium
Olomouc, Czechia
Lviv, Ukraine
Bologna, Italy
Erfurt, Germany

Towns

Trebon, Czechia
Varazdin, Croatia
Sibenik, Croatia
Forchheim, Germany
Ferrara, Italy
Hannoversch Munden, Germany
Gyor, Hungary
Bitonto, Italy

Small towns:

Kotor, Montenegro
Telc, Czechia
Wernigerode, Germany
Lauf an der Pegnitz, Germany
Trakai, Lithuania
Trogir, Croatia
Mikukov, Czechia
Knaresborough, Yorkshire
Sintra, Portugal

-----

[Dex Sawash]

Blue Balls Pennsylvania

[who cares]

If you can (dunno what the weather's like) choose a sunny morning to visit.

Cheers, I will.

I loved Barcelona- was there a few days as it was cheaper than flying home directly. There were protests and police, and late that night, a huge thunderstorm. The next day the streets were soaked and I wandered for hours with no plan or purpose until my feet ached.

[Shit Good Nose]

Not sure if you're saying that you took it from the fact that Carrott was joking about Solihull that it was meant to be a shithole, or that you thought that his jokes had been about its being a shithole.

First one.  But yeah, lovely place.

[Chedney Honks]

Pantheon in Rome. Picture's looked boring but I started crying when I walked in there and saw a column of fine rain glistening in the sunlight.

[Shit Good Nose]

Pantheon in Rome. Picture's looked boring but I started crying when I walked in there and saw a column of fine rain glistening in the sunlight.

Until you walked back out and noticed the McDonald's right opposite.

[peanutbutter]

Sarajevo, expected it to be pretty good but was still surprised at how fascinating I found it  to wander around. Done 4 consecutive days of walking 20+ miles somehow...

Budapest the second time, mostly because I thought it was extremely shite the first time and I can't compreheend why now.

LA felt way more like LA than I expected it to, I guess that's technically surpassing expectations.

Limerick in Ireland, not amazing or anything but seemed like a perfectly fine western town in itself without the odd ego of Galway and reasonably well connected

The view from the Empire State Building was pretty fucking cool.

Years ago now, but when I went to the British Museum for the first time around 19 I was blown away by the variety and age of historical shit in one location.

Castro Theatre in San Francisco.

[Zetetic]

Bangor, Gwynedd
Afan Valley
Pneumoconiosis mural, now at Llandough Hospital

[derek stitt]

Worcester and Shrewsbury are rather pleasant. Nice mix of Victorian and timber framed in Worcester and the layout of Shrewsbury is still medieval in places.

[touchingcloth]

Harry Potterland Watford. For one it's in Watford and for another it's based on the dogshit films. I was gifted a ticket, and even though I'm a sucker for behind the scenes filmmaking stuff I thought it would be shit.

Best bits were the paper scale models, and real butter beer nom.

[Mr Banlon]

Looe in Cornwall.
My mate and his family rented a 2 bed holiday cottage down there, and when it was cancelled because it had been double-booked, they gave him a 4 bed gaff as compensation. Anyway, he invited me and my missus to go with them now that they had the extra space.
Didn't know that Cornwall was so fucking lovely. I just assumed it'd be shit like the rest of England is.

[Neomod]

Looe in Cornwall.
My mate and his family rented a 2 bed holiday cottage down there, and when it was cancelled because it had been double-booked, they gave him a 4 bed gaff as compensation. Anyway, he invited me and my missus to go with them now that they had the extra space.
Didn't know that Cornwall was so fucking lovely. I just assumed it'd be shit like the rest of England is.

I hope you popped along to Polperro. It's even prettier.

[TrenterPercenter]

Solihull.

Having grown up hearing Jasper Carrot's numerous jokes about Solihull I'd always imagined it to be an absolute shithole.  Even the name - Solihull.

Wu-wu-whaaaat?!

Solihull is famed for being the posh-part of Birmingham that left it to become its own metropolitan borough (though it was forced to take Chelmsley Wood with it).  It's a basically a byword for snobbery in Bham and the basis of the "considerably richer than yow" joke from the FastShow.

There are loads of mega rich places just outside Brum that way btw (Lapworth, Hampton in Arden, Henley in Arden, Willencote, Kenilworth etc...)

[Sebastian Cobb]

Had a mate whose mum was a Hyacinth Bucket type who was well desperate to move from our middle-class commuter town to Lapworth.

[idunnosomename]

You gotta elaborate.

I might be going to Coventry on Saturday.

well ok

there's a massive medieval cathedral that was demolished under Henry VIII that there's actually a surprisingly large bit of it left of by the other two churches and the modern cathedral.

there's a number of other medieval churches (the friaries, a hospital, a chapel by the Spon Gate), the guildhall and timber framed houses (even if the later have been moved about) and you get a way better idea of the medieval town than you do at somewhere like Bristol, Northampton or Nottingham. and it's more authentic than Chester which sucks.
I liked a lot of the postwar planning from a historical perspective.

did stink of piss though, not denying that.

[TrenterPercenter]

Also should point out Jasper Carrot or "Robert Davis" is from Acocks Green (which isn't posh) he just moved to Solihull when he became considerably richer than yow.

[Blue Jam]

I've heard the Mona Lisa is tiny and very disappointing. Not seen it though. Guernica on the other hand is pretty spectacular.

Also once saw Alan Carr do stand-up in a tiny room above a pub and he was pretty bloody hilarious.

Really liked Sheffield. Glenn from The Thick Of It was being unduly harsh in his description of it. One of a handful of UK towns I could happily live in.

[madhair60]

I cannot offer a truly unbiased view of Hull but when I was there I was possibly the happiest I have ever been in my entire life ever.

[Shoulders?-Stomach!]

What is there to be disappointed about the Mona Lisa? It is a ubiquitous and almost universally known piece of art that even people with no art chops will have gawked at dozens of times across many formats. It is known to be small. It is also known to be highly prized so the process of looking at the original is going to be be a hassle, probably. They have a copy at Da Vinci's house, which I have visited. It made the same impression as before. Either you think it's so good that her soul has been trapped within that painting forever or it is just another portrait with an ambiguous expression.

I am no more than a dilettante when it comes to paintings though. Nevertheless, the Rijksmuseum was fantastic and surpassed my expectations. Far fewer dull as fuck Christ child stuff (go to the Uffizi to be bored to tears by endless depictions of Matthew Sweet/the lead singer of Keane in baby form) and loads of medieval Dutch and Belgian history, landscapes, trading scenes, fun surprisingly off-beat heterodox portraits, ill people being dissected, contemplations of death and uncertain futures and of course, Rembrandt's The Night Watch - which is the one people with tablets crowd around. I am pretty sure the vast majority are doing so for no further reason than saying 'been there'. The whole Selfies @ Auschwitz crowd.

But still, do go.

[bgmnts]

The best painting ever is Goya's Cronus eating his son effort.

If anything can surpass that, I'll tip my hat.

[touchingcloth]

The best painting ever is Goya's Cronus eating his son effort.

If anything can surpass that, I'll tip my hat.

He painted that on the walls of his house


















                                     

[Zetetic]

Really liked Sheffield. Glenn from The Thick Of It was being unduly harsh in his description of it. One of a handful of UK towns I could happily live in.

I'd echo this. I believe it's (re)growing incredibly quickly at the moment.

[Psybro]

I've lived in the nicer bits of Sheffield for almost 17 years now and love it to bits, I'm now in what feels more like a village next to green belt and the Peaks but with access to the city on my doorstep.

The thing is though is it's a perfect case study of the stratification of British society.  For example round the back of the Cathedral you have law firms and their coffee shops bumping shoulders with a big addiction centre, and to the west or east of there really does feel like two different cities.

I'm worried the city centre may be a dead loss now because millions of pounds of investment have only succeeded in making the rubbish bit better and the good bit rubbish.

Some of the South Yorkshire pit towns still feel surprisingly alive compared to their North Notts cousins.

[buttgammon]

What is there to be disappointed about the Mona Lisa? It is a ubiquitous and almost universally known piece of art that even people with no art chops will have gawked at dozens of times across many formats. It is known to be small. It is also known to be highly prized so the process of looking at the original is going to be be a hassle, probably. They have a copy at Da Vinci's house, which I have visited. It made the same impression as before. Either you think it's so good that her soul has been trapped within that painting forever or it is just another portrait with an ambiguous expression.

I am no more than a dilettante when it comes to paintings though. Nevertheless, the Rijksmuseum was fantastic and surpassed my expectations. Far fewer dull as fuck Christ child stuff (go to the Uffizi to be bored to tears by endless depictions of Matthew Sweet/the lead singer of Keane in baby form) and loads of medieval Dutch and Belgian history, landscapes, trading scenes, fun surprisingly off-beat heterodox portraits, ill people being dissected, contemplations of death and uncertain futures and of course, Rembrandt's The Night Watch - which is the one people with tablets crowd around. I am pretty sure the vast majority are doing so for no further reason than saying 'been there'. The whole Selfies @ Auschwitz crowd.

But still, do go.

I came in here to mention to Rijksmuseum, which is one of my favourite art galleries anywhere. The last time I visited, the iPad crowd was minimised by the fact that there was some restoration taking place and the scaffolding would've ruined their photo ops.