Wow, what a day. Even though I woke up around 10 am (0300 CST) and was slow to get on the road, I had a very productive day. I drove from Hawkesbury Junction to Hampton in Arden. I was headed to Birmingham for the day, but knew better than to try and drive into the city. There is absolutely no need for a vehicle in a city like Birmingham when you are just staying for the day. Plus, the UK has a wonderful train system compared to the US even on a bad day of delays and cancellations. Only had one delay today and an unexpected transfer. All easy to figure out.
I got into Birmingham a little after noon and immediately found the Bullring. The Bullring is a historic indoor and outdoor shopping area that is massive. It has a high end indoor mall, the swanky open air walkplatz style mall, indoor and outdoor flea market style shopping, as well as farmers markets. Every type of shopping is done here.
I then found myself in Chinese quarter. Birmingham is incredibly diverse and the Chinese Quarter is just a small sample of what the city has to offer. I stopped at an authentic Chinese roast restaurant. I had roast duck and mixed veggies with a cold milk tea. It was incredible. The service was great as well. Cool thing about most of these restaurants is that your dinner is greeting you at the window when you walk in.
After I ate, I walked towards the canal central area of the city. There are a few narrowboat hire companies here, but I found the best group online and headed straight for their mooring to catch a ride and a story. For 6 quid, you get about a 45 minute journey around the canals of Birmingham from three mates with a Brummie accent and look like extras from Peaky Blinders. Actually they don't look too different from me except their outfits. Do not pass the opportunity to ride with Brindly Cruises if you are anywhere near here and want a good time and know more about the canals. Oh, and there is a bar on board if that is your thing.
Once the boat tour was over I had some time to kill before the show so I went back towards the Bullring to get some pictures of some of the more historic buildings of Birmingham.
Lastly, I had a show to attend. If you don't know the comedy stylings of Al Murray, and you don't mind a bloke telling you like it is, then he probably isn't your guy. I will be seeing a few different comedians while I am here, but enjoyed the beer stained show greatly. I have been on here for about an hour with the slower than expected internet in my camping spot, so I will leave you with just one more picture.
The rest of the pictures will be available once I have better connectivity. As well as adding captions to these pictures.