Birmingham Bourneville – Hopwood via Birmingham (Fri 2nd Aug)


















Left at 12:20 arrived at 17:30.

It was wet when we got up, me and kids need to be up and at em for 8 45 as Cadbury World booked for 9 20.  Derek and me didn’t have bad night even though it was very warm, we had hatches and portholes open, kids slept well.  I was up and showered, breakfasted for 8, Charlotte and Amelia both ready for 8 15ish.  We were all sorted, decided to just take umbrella as rain had stopped and it was still warm, on our way for 8 40 and got there for just chiming 9, we joined the queue.  It was a lovely tour, very well organised, free choc every now and then, we had 12 or more bars by the time we had finished.  The staff at the factory were efficient, friendly and the facilities were clean.  We finished most of the tour and round the 1st shop for 11ish so we had lunch in the cafe.  I rang Derek he had mended the hoover, done the hovering, tidied round and was ready for when we get back, to go to Birmingham for a look see.  We went seeking the “Essence”, it was a feature outside near the playground, there was a museum which was nice, a show for the little ones every hour or so and the Essence experience.  It was in a small cinema type building with a talk by holographic actors, then in to get more melted chocolate, on sweets of your choice supposedly to invent another type of chocolate!!  There was a further little shop and then we set off back to the boat.  Back to the boat for 12ish and set off for a ride into Birmingham.  I did try texting but the network is still not sorted so failed again.  Birmingham City waterway was really very nice, lots of bars and bridges criss crossing over the water, lots of boats, decorated in various ways, the waterbus was cute it was only tiny and painted bright red, real fun could be had with it, it seemed very nippy.  There was a large barge decorated all over  with flowers wrapped round the bars that would have carried the tarpaulin cover, I told Derek I wanted some of that for Esmerelda, he just shook his head with dismay.??  There were lots of flower decorations (real ones), hanging baskets and troughs on the bridges, it was sunny and they all looked fabulous.  We had our pictures taken quite a lot (getting a little blasé about it now) show offs aren’t we?  Derek turned round, turning heads as he used his bow thrusters and we set off back the way we came!!  The kids were crafting and reading and I had a lay down on the bed.  Derek wanted to get back to Hopwood ready for tomorrow, we stopped at Kings Norton for water.  Oh, and we all sat in the cratch whilst we went through the long tunnel, it was even wetter today and we had a laugh as we passed under the showery bits getting splashed.  Amelia and I was right up into the air inlet, it was really high above the tunnel, it looked quite scary, we did wonder what it would look like on the surface.  We filled the water as planned and got to our own little spot near the pub.  We let Chris now where we are for tomorrow afternoon.  Then we had a lovely tea, the famous wok ships featured.  Charlotte and Me did the plants and washed the boat down, it was a bit dirty from the tunnel, Charlotte got to play with my new toy, a jug with a long rope on it, so you can drop it into the canal and fill it up with water without much effort.  (Only taken Derek 10 years to think of that one!!)   We then packed and sorted most of the kids clothes round ready for home tomorrow.  Sat about watching tele, reading and Derek snoring laid on the bed, before all to bed for 11.

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