In To Birmingham And A Fab Weekend

Tuesday morning we set off from Fazeley and continued along the Birmingham and Fazeley canal up to Kingsbury Water Park and moored at the bottom of the 11 locks at Curdworth. This is a lovely place to moor and so we spent a very enjoyable evening there.

Kingsbury Water park 

Wednesday we slipped the lines and headed up the 11 locks in lovely sunshine. We were soon through them and cruised towards Minworth and moored just after Wigginshill Road Bridge for the night. We have a very busy day ahead of us tomorrow so we were early to bed this evening.

Thursday we were woken early as we heard some boats passing by, I looked out and there was a number of historic boats passing us heading to a Historic Boat Gathering at The Black Country Living Museum for the weekend so we knew we would be slow moving today. We set off at 8.00 up the 3 locks at Minworth and cruised on to Salford Junction where we took the second left hand turn up to the 11 locks at Aston and had to drain down each lock as there was a boat in front of us going up the locks so slow progress along here. At Aston Junction we turned right and made our way to the Farmers Bridge locks all 13 of them.  We were still behind another boat but it didn't matter as this way in to Birmingham is absolutely fantastic so fantastic in fact we forgot to take any photos as we were astounded by the views so BIG apologies for this but we will take some photos when we leave.

We filled with water at the top lock and found some moorings for the weekend. It was a hard day today and at the end of it I had sustained a knee injury which gave me pain most off the weekend

We were only expecting the floating market to be on for the weekend but found out that it was in fact Birmingham’s Festival Weekend with lots of free entertainment Marvellous. Friday evening we were both very excited as our youngest son Sam and Rachel are visiting us for the weekend and it will be lovely to see them both again. They arrived at 22.00 hrs.

Sam & Rachel Bid us Farewell

Some of The Tradeboats

Saturday and the sun was shining and we took a walk to the Bull Ring shopping centre and on the way passed street entertainers. We returned to Tacet and booked a table at Jimmy Spices restaurant for the evening. We had all planned to go a watch the Maudits Sonnants which can best be described as an orchestra, acrobatics and light show some 40ft off the ground. However Michael Macintyre was performing at the Barclaycard Arena that night and they still had some tickets for his show so Sam & Rachel brought some and went to the show.

Sharon and I went off for the evening and found some people making Chinese water lanterns for the festival so we brought one and wrote a message on it be for it was launched with other lanterns on to the canal they looked really nice floating down the canal.

A Few Lanterns On The Canal

 After this we did go and see the Maudits Sonnants and both agreed they were a fantastic show they have some footage on YouTube well worth looking at.

Maudits Sonnants Flying High

Sam & Rachel had a really good time at Micheal Macintyre’s show as well.

Sunday we went for a walk and came across Godiva odyssey a 6 metre tall puppet rehearsing for the evening show what a great thing to see.

Godiva 6 Mtr Puppet

We had lunch and all to soon it was time to say goodbye to Sam & Rachel they left us a 3.30 and headed back to Suffolk, we find it very sad when our family has to go but we have had a really lovely weekend with them both and can’t wait to see them again really soon.

Monday as my knee is still playing up we have decided to remain in Birmingham most likely till Wednesday.

Time Travelled Tuesday 1. Hr  Distance Travelled 2.5. Miles 0 Locks

Time Travelled  Wednesday 3.5 Hrs Distance Travelled 4 Miles. 11 Locks

Time Travelled Thursday 7. Hrs Distance 7.5 Miles 27 Locks

Total Distance Travelled 858.5 Miles 

207 Locks (Broad ) 351 single locks and 18 tunnel's, 10 Massive Lock

Total Tunnel length 10707 yards   
Total Time 448 hours  

We Are Loving It so Much