If you visit Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery, prepare to be amazed the minute you walk in the door. The first thing to greet your eye is the fantastic, perspective warping work by Patrick Hughes, where the painting actually appears to move as you do, and you can look down three painting lined corridors simultaneously. Even as you alter your position, the corridors seem to shift so that you can still see down all of them. Hughes was born in Birmingham, and is the creator of a technique known as “reverspective”, which is used to create an optical illusion on a three dimensional surface. If you want to see how the painting actually works, then I suggest that you view it from the side – the truth will amaze you even more.

Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery has been on the go for 120 years, and has built up a magnificent collection of art and artefacts, from Renaissance masterpieces to 9,000-year-old Middle-Eastern treasures, bronze Buddhas and Egyptian mummies. The museum is particularly famed for its Pre-Raphaelite paintings and drawings, which is probably the largest collection in the world.

All this art viewing is thirsty work, so don’t forget to try the wonderful Edwardian Tea Room, which, as well as tea and coffe, also serves the most delicious cakes. I had the summer fruits mascarpone - which made the whole trip very worthwhile, and goes down very well with coffee.

In the museum shop you can buy a wide variety of items from books to semi-precious stones, from novelty erasers to rose and violet chocolates.

There is a year-round programme of activities and temporary exhibitions, and the museum is very child friendly. Recent events include family storytelling and a puppet-making workshop.