London, Finally Part 6

Monday of my trip found me off to another city I'd never been to--Birmingham. I had arranged to meet my dear Duck Lady, Sarah, there, instead of having her come all the way to London. After all, it was an opportunity to see another part of England I hadn't been to.

The bad news, however, was that there was a Tube worker strike on Monday. I walked up to the Paddington station to find it locked up. "Fine," I thought. "I'll go to Paddington Rail Station and catch a taxi."

Everyone else, of course, had that idea.

I stood in the queue for some time, watching as the time crept up to and past the time of the train I'd intended to take from Euston. I messaged Sarah that I'd be on a later train, and finally I found myself at the front of the queue. 

I adore London cab drivers. In my experience, 99% of the time, they are so ready to chat with their customer. And I love chatting with them. On this particular ride, my driver was an older gentleman who laughed very loud when I said, "Well, I suppose you will be busy today." We were off, conversing about the Jubilee weekend and my love of all things England and London. The ride to Euston was only about ten minutes--hardly worth a cab if the Tube had been running, but too far to walk when there's a train to catch. I was very grateful for those timeless London Taxis. 

I caught the next train (only twenty minutes behind schedule) and spent a pretty uneventful trip watching the world go by. Finally, we pulled into Birmingham (the English accent has it as "BUH-meen-um," whereas my American accent, roundly mocked by Kay, says "Birrrr-minggg-HAM.") 

Sarah found me quite quickly as I started turning around looking for our designated meeting spot. After a huge hug, we set off to see what Birmingham has to offer.

It's not a very touristy city, for sure, but it is a nice place--clean, with its own unique history of industry. While it has come to be known as the setting for Peaky Blinders on Netflix, I'm not sure how much of the history of the city is really that violent--I mean, no more or less than any other major city.

We poked our noses into a central church, then walked around the city towards one of its larger museums.

Much of the museum was closed off for renovations, but after a wander, we visited their cafe for tea and a pastry. I was amused by the champagne button on our table. 

After tea, we went to the gift shop. On our way out, we passed one exhibit we hadn't looked at, something to do with Oceania. In there, we encountered the most amazing and baffling display I've ever seen at a museum. I still have no clue what this was about, why it was there, and why so many random things were crammed together in this glass case. 

We wandered some more, chatting and catching up on all the little and big things in our lives. We came across a canal boat tour, and decided we'd quite like to do that. 

This statue has James Watt, and Watt
Ave.--a major Sacramento-area street--is named for him

The canal tour was about an hour or so, and an interesting way to see the city behind-the-scenes. The woman giving the tour was so eager to tell us all about the history, and while the other party on board opted out, Sarah and I gave her our full attention. 

After the tour, we lunched at a pub, then continued exploring. 

This is a famous bull, dressed up for Jubilee.

After poking through a large shopping center, we stopped for a coffee near the train station. Before too long, it would be time for me to go back to London. 

We snapped one picture before I left--sadly quite blurry!! 

It was wonderful to see Sarah again, and to see a part of England that was new to me. I arrived back to my hotel around midnight, ready to get some sleep. I had a date with some Sex, Drugs, and Rock and Roll the next day!