Being obsessed with canal stuff, Rick wanted to see the Gas Street Basin area in Birmingham. In this area, two main canals meet, there are about 12 locks on one of the canals to get up to Birmingham, there are coffee shops etc, a great area to explore. Unfortunately it was raining so we only spent 2 hours there, would have been great to have been able to spend much longer. The Worcester and Birmingham canals meet here, they go under many buildings and there are many mooring areas. The whole area must be a very special busy but peaceful place in the middle of a big city. This is another place where you need to feel the atmosphere and photos don’t do justice. We did find a canal boat that had been converted into a floating coffee shop.
Our next stop was Kirby Hall, an English Heritage site. It was built in the 17th century and is now almost a ruin. The rooms are arranged round a large central courtyard and, while the outer walls make the building look large, the actual configuration of rooms doesn’t make it a huge building. It must have been a beautiful building in its heyday. The house had to be sold originally because the man of the house died and the lady of the house was left penniless. The house was left to deteriorate more and more with each owner. At one stage, the roof was sold to pay legal fees.
Tonight’s stop (recommendation from a pub who didn’t have any rooms left) took a little while to find, we needed a GPS reference to find it. The most expensive so far. We had dinner in a little village pub about 3 miles away. Great food and we had a few laughs with the owner and his partner. Back now to finish the blog.
