Walking. Gossip. Travel.

Tag: GeoGuessr2

  • GeoGuessr 2 – Birmingham (Canals)

    GeoGuessr 2 – Birmingham (Canals)

    When we were walking from the hotel back to Birmingham city centre, I realised that we were crossing the route of the Birmingham Canal Canter that I had walked earlier in the year with Susanna and Bev. This was my favourite LDWA walk of the year, not least because of the BBQ, but unfortunately the event isn’t taking place again in 2020.

    Walking along the canal wasn’t the quickest way to the city centre, but it is atmospheric and we only saw one other person.

    Two more photos…. Birmingham has 35 miles of canals, which is a greater length of canals than Venice has, so there’s no shortage of waterways to walk by.

  • GeoGuessr 2 – Birmingham (Primark)

    GeoGuessr 2 – Birmingham (Primark)

    I’ve now posted about Primark twice in a week, which is enough shopping blogging to last me for the next two years. This is an amazing shop though, it’s the largest Primark in the world and proof that the high street hasn’t entirely been buried by on-line shopping. Five floors, over 160,000 square feet, a barber’s shop, beauty studio and three dining options, that’s some shop.

    I won’t mention in too much detail about Nathan’s sliding down a mud bank in Birmingham the previous evening, but it did result in him needing new shoes and jeans. So, hence why we were in Primark, although I was also intrigued about seeing this vast piece of retail estate.

    I also won’t embarrass anyone, so I won’t name who it was, but when this person was buying his new shoes and jeans, he also gave his hat to the member of staff at the till. This confused the staff member as the hat didn’t have a barcode on it to scan, until Nathan, I mean, the person who I won’t name, remembered that was the hat he actually already owned and had come into the shop with.

    The coffee shop within Primark and there was also a restaurant next to it which specialised in pizzas, with its own impressive pizza oven visible on the counter. The prices in Primark are certainly bordering on the ridiculous in terms of how low they are, but the store is well managed, accessible and there were plenty of staff around the shop. So, all very lovely.

  • GeoGuessr 2 – Bloxwich (Bloxwich Railway Station)

    GeoGuessr 2 – Bloxwich (Bloxwich Railway Station)

    This railway station is similar to that of Rugeley Town, insomuch that it was closed down in the 1960s during the Beeching Cuts but has recently been re-opened. It’s not at the original station site, which was a little further down the track, with the current station dating from 1989. It has created the slight anomaly though that the railway station is now no longer at the town’s Station Place and Station Street.

    There’s not much to see at the railway station and it deals with fewer than 50,000 passengers a year, but it’s positive that this is a stop which has at least been saved. The closure of this railway station in 1965 seems to me to clearly have been a huge mistake by the Government of the time and even in 1966 the Prices and Incomes Board were investigating the problem that local shops had put up prices in Bloxwich as there was no longer easy access to Walsall. A local union said in 1966, “this form of extortion hits hardest at mothers of small children” and there were problems with bus services from the time that the railway station closed.

    Anyway, for the purposes of our GeoGuessr, we left from Bloxwich to return back to Birmingham New Street.

  • GeoGuessr 2 – Bloxwich (Bloxwich Showman)

    GeoGuessr 2 – Bloxwich (Bloxwich Showman)

    We’d decided not to visit pubs in Birmingham on the Saturday night before Christmas, as it was pretty likely that they’d be full, so we instead took a leisurely journey back from Rugeley and stopped at Bloxwich. This is the only pub in the town listed in the Good Beer Guide and it’s operated by JD Wetherspoons, named after Pat Collins who was a local showman, Liberal MP for Walsall and the Mayor of Walsall. Being a politician and showman is perhaps a good combination, with Collins being heavily involved in running circuses around the country. A bit like some politicians it could be argued…..

    The beer choice was a little limited for a Wetherspoons, although the prices were at the usual low levels. I went for a pint of the Old Man from Long Man Brewery in East Sussex, perfectly acceptable and there was a slight flavour of coffee to it.

    We were fortunate to find a seat, which was in the upstairs section, which also had views over the main part of the pub.

    The interior decoration.

    Nathan decided, “for a laugh”, to buy two pints of Fosters in some kind of ode to Ross’s dreadful choice of beer. The crisps helped the situation, although Nathan then proceeded to argue with some of my friends on Facebook for about two hours. But we won’t talk about that ever again. The Fosters, which in my view is a drink which should never be drunk, was though a useful reminder of just how much like water it tastes…

    Anyway, onto TripAdvisor….

    “Avoid this pub if you want a glass for bottled drinks as we’re refused 2 glasses for bottled Aspel cider told could only have glasses with draft beers. We’re eventually given some after confrontation”

    I like this one, the idea that a customer has to have a confrontation with a member of bar staff to get a glass for a bottled beer. I’m not quite sure that this is the brand standard.

    “Terrible food it was cold and I could av saved money and did it myself a lot better at home”

    Written by Karen, I can never understand the point of these reviews, since no-one has a clue what she ordered and it would be much more exciting if she took a photo of the food in the pub and the brilliant food she makes at home.

    “Ordered strongbow and had to ask for strongbow glass”

    An unhappy that their drink was served in a “bog standard” glass. Perhaps it was a Fosters one….

    “I should have complained only I was with a friend and did not want to appear awkward, will not be going again.”

    The ideal customer for a pub to try and help, one that pretends there’s no issue at the pub so as not to look awkward, and then goes back to leave 1/5 on TripAdvisor….

    Anyway, all was well with our visit (bar Fostersgate) and the pub was organised, with customers being served in turn. Given that it was so near to Christmas, it was also pleasingly not overly busy.

  • GeoGuessr 2 – Bloxwich (Tom Major-Ball)

    GeoGuessr 2 – Bloxwich (Tom Major-Ball)

    We stopped off at Bloxwich when returning from Rugeley to Birmingham, with Nathan looking at Wikipedia to see if there was anything interesting to see other than the town’s only pub in the Good Beer Guide. As it transpired, just around the corner from that pub was Church Street, which is where Abraham Thomas Ball was born on 18 May 1879. Later better known as Tom Major-Ball, he went to Pittsburgh (where I visited earlier this year) and established a career as a music hall performer. He had five children, one of whom is the former Prime Minister, Sir John Major.

    I don’t know which house Tom Major-Ball lived in, but it’s somewhere down this street…..

  • GeoGuessr 2 – Rugeley (Rugeley Town Railway Station)

    GeoGuessr 2 – Rugeley (Rugeley Town Railway Station)

    We had arrived into Rugeley Town railway station earlier on in the day from Birmingham, but I didn’t get much chance to look at it properly. There isn’t much to see, but this is one of the railway stations which has been reinvigorated over recent years and it’s used by over 100,000 passengers a year.

    The railway station in this area originally opened in June 1870 and was operated by the London and North Western Railway. It was shut down during the Beeching cuts and so the railway station looked like it would be permanently lost, although the track remained in place. The current new station, located a little further down the track away from Rugeley, was built in 1997 as part of the re-opening process of what became known as the Chase Line.

  • GeoGuessr 2 – Rugeley (The Vine Inn)

    GeoGuessr 2 – Rugeley (The Vine Inn)

    Having visited the Rusty Barrel, there was time to visit the town’s other entry into the Good Beer Guide.

    I hadn’t been overly impressed at the choice of beers at the Rusty Barrel, but this pub didn’t disappoint at all. They had a vanilla porter and a pecan porter which were brewed in-house, and I settled on having the former, but the pub kindly offered a sample of the latter as well so I didn’t miss out. The vanilla porter was marvellous, lots of flavour, an element of richness and very drinkable.

    We had just eaten about a kilogram of chips each, so the food options weren’t for us at that particular moment, but there were some interesting options. Service at the pub was excellent, a really engaging staff member who added positively to our experience with her friendliness.

    We had to leave after around half an hour to get our train, but there was an element of sadness that we couldn’t stay longer here, a very well deserved entrant into the Good Beer Guide. Indeed, usually it’s Nathan faffing about and making us nearly miss flights, but on this occasion, it was him harassing me out of the door. So, onwards into the cold black evening we went.

  • GeoGuessr 2 – Rugeley (Bus Stop Gate)

    GeoGuessr 2 – Rugeley (Bus Stop Gate)

    There are many things in the world that irritate Nathan, some which can be predicted, others which can’t be. And, as he likes the operation of buses, this little effort irritated him, which were two bus stops on opposite sides of the road. He suggested, quite rightly as it turned out, that this is bad practice as it means that two buses can be parked up causing a traffic obstacle.

    He’ll probably be writing a fiercely worded letter to the local council, crafted in his own inimitable passive aggressive style.

  • GeoGuessr 2 – Rugeley (The Jolly Fryer)

    GeoGuessr 2 – Rugeley (The Jolly Fryer)

    Food started to become an important consideration after visiting our first pub in Rugeley, but fortunately, there was a chip shop nearby. Nathan was despatched to purchase a small sausage and small chips each, but he came back with a bag which had a similar weight to a small child.

    The portion size of the chips was a little ridiculous, but always best to have too many than not enough. The sausage was fine, the chips were hot and there were lots of the little chips, my personal favourite. Service in the chip shop was pleasant, it all looked efficient and there was a bit of a festive feel as well. But, the portion size at least meant that we didn’t need any more food for the rest of the day.

  • GeoGuessr 2 – Rugeley (Rusty Barrel)

    GeoGuessr 2 – Rugeley (Rusty Barrel)

    I’m a big advocate of micro-pubs and I think they can in the future be a key driver in the increase in pub numbers in the UK, which for the first time in a decade actually increased last year. This pub is located within a row of shops, or what would be called a strip mall in the US, where it wouldn’t be unusual to see a bar, but it’s much rarer in the UK.

    All of the micro-pubs which I’ve been in over the last couple of years have a similar theme to them, which is a modern style of serving, blackboards or screens giving clear information about the beers, no seating at the bar, credit cards preferred and engaging staff.

    Firstly, with regards to the bar staff, that was great, a friendly acknowledgement when at the bar, engaging service and a farewell as we left the pub, so I felt we received a genuine welcome.

    Other than that, I found the set-up slightly disappointing. The pub has seating at the bar which makes it difficult to see what the beer options are, with no obvious blackboard to be able to see the choices before arriving at the bar. Whilst writing this, I’ve found that the pub does actually put the options on their web-site, which is a marvellous idea and one I wish other pubs would do.

    There were also no dark beer options at all, which is unusual and especially so at this time of year, but there were three choices from the Backyard Brewhouse, a local brewery from Walsall. I’ve since discovered that this brewery makes some fantastic dark beers, so it’s even more disappointing that the choices offered were a bit narrow. There are also no cans and bottles in fridges to cater for more tastes, something else which is unusual in a micro-pub set-up.

    I aborted my plans to have a pint when I saw the options, cutting to half a pint of Bad Santa from the Backyard Brewhouse. This was adequate, tasted well-kept, was at the appropriate temperature, but it didn’t feel like it was 6.8% and didn’t have any strong flavours or even subtle tastes that I could discern.

    The pub also doesn’t take cards, a situation which is now rare, although there’s a cash machine nearby.

    Some of the beers which the pub has previously sold.

    There may have been a beer blackboard that I didn’t see, but all I could see was the gin list and the rum list.

    I like the rustic look, although for me, the interior design looked more like a garage with furniture rather than a pub which had a quirky feel. And to me, this also felt more like a small pub, rather than an on-trend micro-pub.

    Having written all that, it’s a marvellous enterprise to have set up, they’ve got in the Good Beer Guide despite only being open since late 2016. The welcome seemed authentic and it seemed to have a community feel to it, somewhere welcoming to all. Their reviews are also uniformly excellent, so they clearly know what they’re doing.