Perhaps Easter Weekend wasn’t the best time to travel through Birminham- it was busy, but its when we arrived so off we set. The trip from King’s Norton Junction starts off depressing, with seemingly miles of graffiti,
But it isn’t all bad as we made our progress north, “look at all those roof tops” Eric said
So I dutifully turned my head to the right to look, only to realise he was cruising as fast as he could (metaphorically cause 3mph isn’t fast) past what was on our left, a chocolate factory, and at Easter, but I suspect the Easter bunny was as busy as Santa’s elves so we didn’t stop.
We’d arranged to pick up our friend James at Selly Oak, because he used to work at the University, in an office overlooking the canal. It was his dream to look up rather than look down. Of course we were too busy chatting to record the fantasy with a photo. But he enjoyed the experience. And Eric and I were still enjoying our lock free stretch, although this meant more tunnels
Edgbaston tunnel isn’t too long and as there is such a high footfall the towpath is always lit, which creates a rather weird impression that the the canal has run dry.
Many years ago Eric also used to work in Birminham, in the BT tower which we could see in the distance, although as an 18 year old I doubt he commanded a penthouse office with a view of the waterways.
We rounded the corner past one of my favourite buildings The Cube
And straight through Birminghams icon canal quarter
Where old and new seem to complement each other artistically,
Where we negotiated the giant plug, and tempting though it is to pull it out, who knows where we might end up if sucked down the vortex
And moored up just beyond St Vincent St Bridge. We prefer a quieter mooring, and we got full sun here.
And it was a good time to stop for a bacon buttie
