Time to stay at a real B&B

Time to say goodbye to Manchester and head down to Birmingham. We checkout late 11:35 then spent an hour in the lounge working on diaries. The drive to Birmingham is pretty straight forward, although on very busy roads - but still should only take about 2 hours.

There are too many cars on UK roads, especially the M56 and M6. We saw our first car accident - hope no-one was badly hurt - but police and ambulances came from everywhere. Adding to the congestion, they are digging up the old concrete and relaying large sections of the M6. So again a bumper to bumper trip - with Mary's help we didn't miss a turn off. We have named the inbuilt SatNav in the car "Isabel" and my windscreen SatNav "Andrea" - so I have three of them telling me what to do - can't go wrong!

We arrived at the B&B Woodlands - and it is just what we were hoping for. Met the owner, he was working in the garden and he told us about the walks around his three lakes on the property and the walks to the nearest pub and local villages along the canal.

Off for a walk - he is proud that he has stocked his lakes with carp - think he should try Trout. We went down some country walking lanes to the local pub - a "pub in a paddock" type of thing. The canal boats look great but were too expensive for just Mary and I - you really need 4 or 6 per people boat.

After our walk [about 6km's] we drove down to Alevchurch and posted our post cards - hope they reach home before we do. Had dinner at the Victoria Hotel - I had pizza - bad decision ... she said most Australians had fish and chips - I wanted a change - should have just stuck to the beer.

Tomorrow we head down to the south coast of England - not sure where we are staying - but it should be more fun and adventure.

Cheers,Read more