Well a couple of days since I last wrote and still not much sign of that big yellow ball in the sky.  I can’t even remember its name!  A fair bit of the wet stuff though.  Still, the worst of the rain has been when we were moored.  Saturday was a reasonable day with only 3 locks when, by the end of the day, we had been through Salford Junction.  This was interesting as not only is it where the Birmingham and Fazely, Thame Valley and Grand Union Canals all meet, over head is big road intersection with the M6, A38(M) and other major roads.  We moored for the night just after, little knowing what Sunday had in store for us!!

We set off Sunday morning with the 11 locks of the Aston Flight ahead.  All the way along there were no moorings.  We finally moored on the lock pins at the bottom of the Farmers Bridge Locks.  There are 13 of those!  The lock pins are there only for accessing the lock, you are not supposed to stay there.  However we stopped for lunch and Paul watched the Grand Prix.  So 3 o’clock saw us setting off again on what turned out to be a very dismal flight of locks indeed.  Admittedly not helped by the drizzling rain.  We had been told it was very industrialised in Birmingham.  What we didn’t know was the blocks of offices or flats had been built over the locks, making a wind tunnel.  Any way we managed all 13 in about 2 hours which we thought was good going!  So about 5 we arrived in the heart of Birmingham.  We found moorings adjacent to Gas Street Basin where we could stay for 48 hours. 

Yesterday we set off to explore the city on foot.  Found our way to the Bullring via several different shopping malls!  Also along the way were some old buildings too.

Today has been a couple of hours gentle cruise by Edgbaston, past the University of Birmingham and we are now moored at Bournville.  Will let you know if we find any chocolate!