Train to Birmingham stopped at Stoke Upon Trent/Carlos Pueblo

Train to Birmingham stopped at Stoke Upon Trent/Carlos Pueblo

After 6 days in Manchester, I took a train to Birmingham to continue my

month long repeated tour of England. The train stopped at Stoke Upon

Trent for transferring. Trent is a name of a river passing through the

Borough of Staffordshire in the central part of England. There are many

names of city or township identified by the river in England. I visited

Dr. Laow and his temple last year at Burton Upon Trent at the same

borough about 30 minute drive away. Staffordshire is a land lock

borough in England. Borough is similar to County in Texas and smaller

than Prefecture in Japan, of course, smaller than State in the U.S. or

Province in Canada. I walked out of the station and marched directly toward

the Newcastle Canal nearby.

Stoke is famous of the pottery yet the business is also lost due to the

globalization. Before my turn to the left toward the south, the University of

Staffordshire campus is on the right. My luggage was compact and manageable

to carry up and down of the steps of the entrance of the canal. A canal lock is

about half a mile away and the pedestrian path is nice and wide. I chatted with

a biker about the canal. I explained why I was interested of English canals. A

barge, long canal boat, was approaching. I stand by the bank and make a hitch

hike sign. The Englishman was confusing and willing to take me to Birmingham

after I explained what it was means. I believed that I met the same barge in

Birmingham downtown several days later.

I watched how the barge to pass the lock. An owner who was waiting on line to

pass the lock explained briefly to me and watched another barge doing the pass.

The boater needs to use a king of ranch to un-lock the gate to make level of two

sides, it is all tunnel effect in physics. After the leveling of both basins, the boater

turns the wood bar to open the gate completely to make the barge to pass. I

learned it later that the horse power of a canal barge was very small and not enough

to overpower bigger wave at a surface of a river or at sea. While I walked back

toward the entrance, I saw another barge carrying some building supply and regular

residents utilized the pedestrian path to commute.

It was quite often at the train schedule to Birmingham. What I do in England for train

Is a standard procedure, first ask the platform number, then look at the sign of

approaching train and destination, finally ask the fellow passenger for the final check.

I find that English are always willing to help and that is why I enjoy to travel in this

country.