Meet the twins
It's an odd idea, twinning towns; two places in completely different parts of the world with no apparent relation to one another are linked, supposedly with the goal of fostering better international relations and cultural understanding. Ok, but is the process of choosing a twin completely arbitrary, as it seems to be? Birmingham, for instance, has a whopping eight twins (actually that would make the lot nonuplets then, wouldn't it?).
But does Brum have anything in common with its International siblings, or is it the black sheep of the family? Itchy set out to do a little internet-based research on a few of these foreign relatives.
Chicago, Illinois, United States: Chicago is the largest city in the US Midwest, Brum is the largest in the UK West Midlands.
Frankfurt, Germany: Both are credited as the birthplaces of a popular food: Birmingham of the Balti and Frankfurt of the Frankfurt sausage, aka the hot dog.
Leipzig, Germany: Famous musicians: Leipzig had Johann Sebastian Bach and Richard Wagner, Birmingham had Ozzy Osbourne, Nick Mason and several members of Duran Duran.
Milan, Italy: Shopping. Milan is renowned as one of the fashion and design capitals of the world, and Brum has the UK's busiest shopping centre in the Bullring.
Birmingham, Alabama, US: This is actually not a twin city, but the namesake of our good old Brum, so we thought we'd include it as a kind of thank you.
Oh, in case you were wondering the other twin towns are Guanzhou and Nanjing, China, Johannesburg, South Africa and Lyon, France, which we were too lazy to find facts about.
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