Friday, 1st April
So, here we are in Birmingham, again. If you've never been, it's a great city to visit, despite what Simon Calder the Independent travel writer wrote about it. In fact, I wrote to him to tell him he'd got it wrong!
We luv Brum!
There's so much going on, it's bustling and busy, and we've never felt worried for our safety here. There are cinemas, theatre, concerts, exhibitions, shopping, an art gallery, museums and the architecture is varied and fascinating. Plus of course, there is people watching!

We walked in to town to see what was on at the cinema tonight but nothing appealed. We spent some time in the Rag Market and the Outdoor Market, and browsing around the city centre.

The highlight of the day was a visit to the Birmingham Back to Backs. These are properties which were not knocked down in the rush to regenerate the city centre and are the last surviving court of back to back housing in Birmingham. They've been fully restored by the National Trust and the Birmingham Conservation Trust. Thousands of houses like these were built, literally back to back, around courtyards, for the rapidly increasing population of Britain's expanding industrial towns, but most have been demolished.

It was a really interesting visit and we were taken round by a tour guide. Trev was particularly interested as he spent the first five years of his life in a back to back in Wolverhampton. There was a great feeling of comradeship amongst the people who lived in these courts, born, probably, of adversity. There was always someone to help with a problem or to chat with, which was certainly not replicated in the high rise flats which replaced them. Although conditions were pretty primitive--shared outside w.c's, no proper kitchens, no bathrooms at all--it must have been a wonderfully warm and safe environment in which to live.

For the uninitiated, a "Back to Back" is literally what it says. Two houses are built back to back, the party wall being the back of each house. Every so often, there is a passage way between the houses so those who live at the front can get to the courtyard area at the back to use the w.c. or the tap or the "brewhouse"! Now what on earth is that? Well, I suppose originally it must have had something to do with brewing, but in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, it was the place where the laundry was done. Each family had its own appointed day on which it could use the brewhouse. A fire would have been lit under the big copper and water was ladled into the copper and heated. The hot water was ladled out in to a wash tub and a dolly was used to pound the washing. It looked like jolly hard work. Thank heavens for automatic washing machines!

In the evening we went to eat at an Italian restaurant near the waterfront, with our "'Times' Eat Out For a Fiver" vouchers, but, as usual, by the time we'd added all the extras on, we could probably have eaten elsewhere for the same price!

Saturday, 2nd April
We filled up with water before we left Birmingham. The teaching friends amongst my readers might be amused to hear that the water point is right by the Ofsted offices. We contemplated connecting up our w.c. pump out hose, putting it through the letterbox and switching it on......... Or another idea was to put a sign over the letterbox to say "Pumpout". Sorry...but it made us feel better. (Needless to say, there wasn't a letterbox any way!)

We left Birmingham through Gas Street Basin and along Holliday Wharf, following a gondola.

This is the Worcester & Birmingham Canal and it went through a leafy area , a sort of green tunnel through the residential district of Birmingham. We passed Birmingham University, Queen Elizabeth Hospital and Cadbury's Bournville. However, there were signs saying not to leave one's boat unattended as thieves operated in the area. When we got to King's Norton Junction we turned left on to The Stratford Canal and, after a while, the litter in and around the canal decreased and the environment slowly improved.

It took some time before we could find anywhere to moor. There was a lot of urban sprawl, and the noise of the M42 motorway was invasive. But eventually we found a peaceful spot and moored up to enjoy the lovely evening.

Sunday, 3rd April
Now that we're out of Birmingham the the scenery is beautiful. Within a couple of miles we started on the Lapworth flight of twenty locks. Trev rode ahead and prepared the locks, and we also had plenty of help from the gongoozlers, it being a lovely warm Sunday afternoon. The pounds between the locks are very short and the locks are not aligned in a straight line and it's not easy to manoeuvre a 70' boat through them. At one point, I banged the side of the boat on the lock entrance and smashed the zipper. Now it doesn't work and so we shall have to have it repaired. Oh I was cross with myself! At another lock, a boat was coming up and wanting to come in to our lock. But the steerer didn't seem able to understand that, as he had come out, and was directly in front of me, I couldn't get out! I asked him if he could move, but he seemed to think that I should! There was nowhere for me to go, I was still in the lock. At last his wife managed to get through to him that he would have to move over in order to let me out!

At Kingswood Junction we turned left on to the Grand Union and moored up in a lovely spot, above the Cock Horse pub at Rowington. It's on an embankment and we like it here.

Monday, 4th April
We moved along to moor near Hatton Station, as tomorrow, Trev's going to fetch the car from the marina on the Llangollen Canal. First we had to go to the winding hole and turn, as we're going back up to Kingswood Junction and down the Stratford Canal before we go to Warwick. It wasn't a very nice spot, but it served its purpose. The water level fluctuated with the use of the locks, and so we spent some time with a list.

Tuesday, 5th April
Trev was up and gone before I'd hardly opened an eyelid. He caught the train from the station right by the boat and went to Whitchurch via Birmingham and Shrewsbury. At Whitchurch, he took a taxi to the marina where he picked up the car, and brought it back to the boat at Hatton Station. Even here, his gallivanting wasn't at an end, as he then unloaded all the shopping, put the folding bike in to the car and took the car to park on our friend Cherry's drive in Warwick. Then he rode back along the towpath on the bike. Quite a day. We've fetched the car as we're going to sell it. I'm sorry we're going to sell it, but it doesn't make financial sense to keep it.

When Trev got back it was about 7.00 p.m. but we didn't want to stay on the mooring and so made our way back along the canal to the mooring on Rowington embankment, above the Cock Horse pub. It was almost dark when we moored up.

Wednesday, 6th April
It was a wild, wet and windy night. We had the ladder on the roof, and, if it hadn't been placed over a brass mushroom, it would have blown off. Why do we have a ladder? Well, if one of us were to fall in, it would help them to get out! We wondered if we would travel at all today, the weather was so bad. But it improved later in the morning, and set off.

We've had a slight change of plan! We have ended up with a little more time than we anticipated, before we need to get to Welford for our bottom blacking. So we decided to go down to Stratford and back, it's a lovely canal. We went back up to Kingswood Junction and turned left on to the Stratford Canal. At Kingswood, we took on water and had a pump out. This was a lengthy business. First we had to wait half an hour for someone already using the water point. And then it took about three quarters of an hour for us to do our pumpout and fill up with water. Whilst we were waiting, the postmen arrived!

We had a cup of tea, and flapjacks Catharine had brought, and then, when the water tank was filled, we set off down the locks. Catharine and Mamdooh had come to help and they certainly helped us along. We set a cracking pace and were sorry when they had to leave. The scenery along the Stratford Canal is beautiful, Warwickshire at its best. We eventually moored up at Lowsonford, near the Fleur de Lys.

Thursday, 7th April
Today we set off for Wootton Wawen. It's real April weather, rain, sun and wind swiftly following each other. We filled up with water just below Lowsonford lock, and continued through another seven locks to moor up just before the cast iron aqueduct which carries the canal over the A34. We were hoping to buy fuel here at the boatyard, but it's 50p a litre. Last time we filled up, in Market Drayton, it was 32.9p. We still have half a tank, and so will wait until we get back to Warwick and Kate boats, where it's 42p per litre.

We're moored next to a boat that's just five months old, and it looks very smart. It makes me realise that ours is now two years old, and is showing signs of being well used! Of course, we use ours every day, and many people have brand new boats and, in a lifetime don't do as much cruising as we have done already, as their boats are really just weekend cottages!