Out and about

 

With Carolyn's eye not getting any better she has been told to go to The Birmingham eye hospital A&E straight away and get it seen by an expert. The hospital is just over a mile away from our mooring and with the canal going very close to the hospital we decide to use that route instead of getting lost walking along all the roads. On the way we pass a lot of old derelict canalside buildings. Its amazing how much industrial work has been lost from Birmingham over the years.

Its good to see they are trying to keep the canals safe and free from crime.

After a successful trip to the Eye hospital for Carolyn it was time to get out and about and have a look around Birmingham. The first place we visited was the library . It has only been open a couple of years and it seems that half the locals love it and the other half hate it . It caused a lot of trouble when it was built mainly because of the cost of it . It was said to have cost £188 million

The Library is well worth a visit and with it being free to get in I enjoyed it even more. At the very top is a viewing platform with views stretching for miles across Birmingham.

The specialist Shakespeare Memorial Room was designed in 1882 by for the first Central Library .When the old building was demolished in 1974 the room was dismantled and later fitted into the new concrete shell of the new library complex. When the Library of Birmingham was built, it was again moved, to the top floor. It houses Britain’s most important Shakespeare collection, and one of the two most important  collections in the world. The collection contains 43,000 books. After spending a week in Stratford a short time ago it was good to catch up with our old mate Bill again.

After a couple of hours at the Library it was off to the Museum and Art Gallery.

Yet again its free to enter and well worth a visit.

Carolyn particularly enjoyed looking at The Staffordshire hoard. The hoard of mostly gold and some silver was discovered in 2009 and contains 11lbs of gold. No wonder Carolyn is showing an interest in it.

As usual we didn't have time to see everything which is good because it gives us a reason to come back sometime in the future.

The hall of memory is a war memorial .

With so much yet to see and only a day left before we set off again its going to be another busy day tomorrow especially as Carolyn wants to hit the shops . With New street and the Bull ring not far away plus what ever else she finds I don't think we will be seeing much of each other.

                                                                                                    Happy Days