Birmingham, England 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 2023

Date: 7-8th October 2023

Travelled: 80 kms from Cheltenham to Birmingham 

Visited: Birmingham  

Stayed: Lyon’s Boatyard Aire, £19, N52.41480, W01.88220  

Budget: 138 days @ €96 per day

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There’s nobody to say goodbye too as we leave Cheltenham. Our English neighbours are all sitting inside watching morning television except the odd fellows whose wife has instructed him to empty the cassette.

As it’s our anniversary tomorrow we thought we’d take the opportunity to have dinner out at our favourite Desi Pub and visit Birmingham. We set the GPS for Lyons Boatshed on the canal about 5 miles from central Birmingham.

It’s an easy drive but the closer to Birmingham the worst the traffic became.

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Birmingham, West Midlands Combined Authority, England, United Kingdom

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Lyon’s Boatshed is easy to find the second time round. Turn at the Lidl down Limekiln Lane it’s first on the left. If you pass the meth lab you’ve gone too far. It’s a quirky arrangement but everyone is friendly and we love the canal and narrow boats.

I spend a couple of hours getting the stickers off the Hymer, whilst watching the occasional narrow boat cruise by. At 6 pm we take a Uber to the Covered Wagon for a slap up Indian, with leftovers for tomorrow night.

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Possibly feeling a little dull today we wander up to the bus stop, at 11 taking a #50 to the centrum. It’s a slow run with a cross section of Birmingham locals, with a bus stop every 200 metres.

We’ve visited England one way or another 10 times over the years and we had no realisation Birmingham is Englands 2nd largest city. Central Birmingham has a population of over a million, with the greater area including Wolverhampton of 4 million.

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It’s a pleasant 20° with some sun and most of Birmingham seems to have come to the city to enjoy what may be the last day before the winter gloom.

The pictures below are some views of Victoria Square in the centrum.

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Birmingham is situated on a complex network of canals. The quays and canals make a wonderful walk. We get lucky and spend some time watching a narrow boat negotiate a series of locks. Reminds of our trip on the Midi.

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It’s well past lunch time when we made our way back to the bus interchange and the #50 once again. We had spotted a couple of interesting looking pubs passing through King’s Heath this morning so we jump off the bus on our way back for some pub grub and a lager. Sitting with the locals watching the football on the big screen.

That was our day in Birmingham.

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Michael + Pam