Re-visiting Birmingham, England 2019/Carlos Pueblo

Re-visiting Birmingham, England 2019/Carlos Pueblo

After arriving Birmingham New Street Station, I walked out toward the

Bull Street Market to get some fruit, vegetable and chicken bone for my

chicken soup later. This was what my experience from last year’s stay at

the same hostel. Bull Street Market has an open air vegetable market with

one British Pound for one unit fruit and the same amount for vegetable such

as mushroom or tomato, etc. Inside the covered meat market, there is some

left over chicken body 4-7 pieces for a Pound. It is the best bargain for me to

budget myself in England plus I always like and know how to cook the chicken

soup, a vegetable combination included mushroom, tomato, cauliflower,  etc.

This time, I didn’t have someone to help me eating it; therefore, I had to dispose

most of the meat. Usually I make a noodle soup or eat with bread crust.

Like Manchester, Birmingham is famous for the role in the Great Industrial

Revolution. There is a very complete network of canal inside the city. My main

Purpose is to visit the canals and understand how they work. The transportation

use of the canal is rare; however, some leisure barge, the house boat, can be

seen on the canals. It is a small single engine propel the boat slowly and manual

handle to pass the lock. I can see the difference between the urban and suburban

area canals. It’s more costly I imagine to maintain the canal especially that the

canal is not in frequent usage; therefore the fund to maintain is scarce even in

a big city like Birmingham, yet the canals are basically sound.

Marching down the canal path is much simpler and easier than on the regular

city streets, not very much traffic and you’re mostly by yourself. Mute geese

and ducks are on the water surface. It is very good looking when they fly over

your head. After a briefly attempt to follow the walk tour of the city at the

Jewellery Quarter, I entered the canal to begin my 4 day manoeuvre.

A couple were passing through a canal lock and I watched. He husband and the

wife were taking turn between the lock and the boat. One took the key, a ranch,

to unlock the horizontal bar and back push the wood bar to open the water gate

to release the water from on basin to another to make it even. Another one stand

at the end of the boat to control bar behind like a wheel to monitor the position of

the boat and slowly move to pass the lock. Afterward, the one on the lock needs to

move the wood bar to close the gate. I didn’t see she did anything with the key

thereafter. They answered me many questions about the canal. I did visit the Royal

Regent Park Canals in London where they lived in a big house boat community later

on my visit of London.