Narrow Boating on the Avon to Birmingham

Stratford Upon Avon to Birmingham Canal, 24 Anniversary Cruise

We took the bus then the train, dogs too, to Alveschurch to pick up the canal boat, Alfred the Yellow.  It was perfect because the train station is right next to the canal boat place. Did not have to walk far. Public transportation is great when it works right and no one is on strike.

The look outs!

Canal boats are like taking an RV across country without  the stress of driving. Even if you do run into things it doesn't matter. Sort of like bumper boats but you live on them. Real similar to living on a boat, only one person can move at a time, and when you go through the hall ways you have to twist sideways to make your shoulders fit. 

We decided that instead of saying it is raining again we would say, there must be a rainbow somewhere. Sort of like the optimist saying their must be a pony in this pile of poop I am shoveling up. There is always hope that maybe the sun would come out again just like there is a pony.

You navigate by the bridge count. What ever number is on the bridge that is where you are, easy peasy. Now a tunnel came up, you are suppose to beep your horn at the beginning of the tunnel, well this tunnel was 2659 yards long, and was under a whole village, so long it is hard to tell if anyone is coming and backing up  is no fun anytime but never in a tunnel, hard to imagine. We got on with it and slowly we saw a small light, hoping the light at the end of the tunnel was not a train or a boat. Not sure two narrow boats could pass one another in the tunnel.

Beep beep, no response, good to go, ....right?

Could be a train?

If it is a train it is a big one! 

Was our lucky day a boat was waiting for us to come out, real good news.

I thought showers in England were small but it has nothing over showers in a narrow boat.  The first time I took a shower every time I would turn around and bend over to pick up the shampoo the water would turn off. This was strange. I tried it a few times and every time the water would turn off . Thought it was some sort of sensor for water conservation, ( I have been working around to many sensors lately.) No matter how quick I was it turned off. Ok so I am a little slow and have no feeling in my butt. Yes every time I bent over my butt hit the shower knob and turned it off. LOL could not stop laughing when I figured that out. Also always remember to take a shower after the engine has been running an hour, no more cold showers for me!

Gale and Kirk by Alfred the Yellow

Once we turned on to the Stratford upon Avon Canal we realized we had enough time to go through 44 locks one way and then have to turn around and do it all again. We decided Stratford we will see by train another day.  We got to Hockley Heath  and turned around and headed to Birmingham. No locks, just tunnels and bridges. Not the garden place of England but no locks and lots of pubs.

Boots and Kirk at the first pub stop.

Kirk found a Brit murphy boat moored next to ours. The Arndt boys use to make boats out of anything they could duck tape together so here is the Brit style murphy boat.

Not sure it would hold his weight!

We stopped at the bakery bridge to stock up on goodies for the rest of the trip. Nipped under the bridge and pulled along side the canal.  As we closed the boat up we headed to the bakery and thought how inconvenient it would be to leave the keys on the boat. So I asked Kirk if he had the keys before he shut the door.  Yep , had the boat keys.  The bakery was all you could ask for, as many bake goods as you could imagine and to top it off they had vegetables and fruit. So we stocked up and had a raisin swirl at the cafe, Kirks favorite, before we head back to the boat. 

We got to the boat and Kirk handed me the keys to the boat, that was when the penny dropped. Boots had taken the keys for the bridges and the boat off the boat key ring, and given them to me on the last drawbridge because we did not know which key was which. And I decided to keep them up front so I would have them when we needed to go under a bridge. So they were safely locked in the boat. Then it started to rain, no rainbow this time. Good news was the bakery was close by. Call the boat company, no problem. Happens all the time. Rescue was within 15 minutes no cost. Dumb Americans , nope Brits do it too.

We went back up to the bakery they were a bit confused and asked did we not get our order, nope I said no keys, she laughed. I ordered cream with tea and we went in circles with this and learned that cream tea is actually tea and a scone with clouted cream and jam. So we said we wanted tea with cream no scone. They still thought this was strange, come to find out English tea drinkers never use cream but use milk. Ok got it! 

Kirk and Boots in Captains end of boat.

Back in position and doors unlocked

Next stop Bourneville and the chocolate factory, we walked around the factory, good smells but we did not need chocolate so went to a tea shop. I was going to get this right so I ordered 2 cream teas, she said they have no scones. I said ok I will have tea with cream. She looked at me and said what do you want! ? Milk and tea . She said tea for 2. Milk was implied. How cute . I did not break out into song although I felt like it once I got the order right. 

Willy Wonka World of England

Yes everyone was dressed in purple, and was there loads of chocolate everywhere.

Birmingham Venice of England

Once Kirk made a perfect 3 point turn and went down the Worcester / Birmingham Canal we saw lots of modern art.  As we putted into Birmingham the  walls on the sides of the canal were covered with cool graffiti , wanted to see art and the canal boat included the price of admission to the coolest graffiti ever. 

It was looking a little sketchy so I googled Birmingham, fireworks by the Iron Lady, that sounded good, it is known for the largest industrial city in England. Then it has a zoo, moonlight on the park, baseball games, civil rights museum I started to get suspicious , oops wrong country! 

Ok, now I am on the right website. Found the botanical gardens on the route so we pulled over for a look see. 

Kirk found his golden girl,  pretty quite too. 

As we pulled into downtown tall buildings surrounded the canal, beautiful bridges arced over the canals attaching all sides to each other. Canals went in many directions and no street in sight. At the heart of it all was a library , sea world and loads of coffee shops, pubs and shopping. It is the Venice of England. Most Brits think we are crazy to holiday here but it it is quite nice. 

The outer loop is a little sketchy. We went through the middle of town and out to the loops and it got pretty scary, a lot of dilapidated building falling into the canal. Came around a turn a little fast and was nose to nose under a bridge with a tour canal boat. They were much better at the backing thing so they backed up and we carried on. The canal front could be very nice if they cleaned up the loops, but downtown is nice.

The evening brought twinkling lights over the canal, very electric and romantic. Especially on a small boat with your mother in law. But this is just tradition as we took Kirks mother in law on our honey moon.

We explored Birmingham and found the downtown was beautiful. The library, Symphony hall, shops, pubs all around the canals.

Kirk and Boots favorite pub the Malt House.

Birmingham Library

Shakespeare Library at the top of the city library.

Ceiling of the Shakespeares hall.

We took off later that after noon for the two day trek back to Alveschurch.  We went into an aqueduct that I did not even notice when we were heading out. When you looked over the side there were highways and buildings down there, verrry confusing. We were above it all, real cool.

One more pub stop for the night and pulled into Alveschurch by 9:00am. Caught the train and headed for Steventon.