[Anonymous]

[Mark Caswell]

I’m losing count of the number of places that have been referred to as “the Venice of the North”. Bruges, Birmingham, St Petersburg – any advances?

My village has a canal running through it – can we jump on the PR bandwagon?

[flyingbunny]

No you can’t. You have to have an established network of canals and a history of living and working on the water in my book… Birmingham actually has more canals than Venice (over 100 miles of waterways), so if anything Venice should be called the Birmingham of the south.
Birmingham is also cheaper, less touristy and has some amazing architecture. The canals converge at Gas Street Basin where all the trendy pubs, clubs and restaurants are. It’s great… And where else can you have a proper curry in Venice…?

[PilotAddict]

Yes but don’t forget Manchester. Then again Ahmedabad is known as the Manchester of the north of India. So where does that leave Venice?

[viking01]

Under water, for most of the winter months, though not in a causal way.

[SimonRowberry]

Flyingbunny – to be absolutely accurate, it isn’t Birmingham that has 100 miles of canals, it is the West Midlands conurbation, which includes places that are most certainly NOT Birmingham, i.e. the Black Country (the Metropolitan Boroughs of Dudley, Sandwell and Walsall, along with the City of Wolverhampton).

Sorry to be a pedant!

Regards, Simon

PS When I was growing up in the general area, I thought for years that it was called “Gastric Basin”!

[flyingbunny]

Simon – you are correct but I guess as most people will never go to Dudley by choice it was better to mention Birmingham. All is forgiven with the Gastric Basin. Anyone else top Birmingham? How many canals has Bruges got?

[Senator]

Hi… I thought Stockholm had the “Venice of the North” as a trademark 🙂 Not some village in the UK… 🙂

[southeastern]

Amsterdam?

[Free Lance]

“Nantes’ most common nickname is the Venice of the West – a name owing to its position on the river delta of the Loire, the Erdre, and the Sèvre, whose tributaries were filled in the early 20th century.”

So basically any city with a few canals is a Venetian equivalent. But let’s face it, no where compares with Venice. It is utterly unique.

[fasttracker]

The smell of Venice is certainly unique.

I’ve heard of Bangkok as being referred to as the Venice of the East.

Bangkok is a lot of things but I wouldn’t say it was that…

[oldchinahand]

Perhaps the only real competitor for the the title of ‘Venice of the North’ in Asia is just outside Hangzhou China. For well over a thousand years this small area has been criss -crossed with picturesque man made waterways. I was there 3 years ago and many of the small Qing Density villages had been restored and more in progress. A ‘must see’ if you are travelling in this part of China

[Author]

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