Birmingham; Friday, 22 June, 2018

I’d been up in Birmingham for a work conference that continued on until just after 6pm. After leaving the conference venue I walked the short distance back to the hotel I’d stayed in the previous evening to pick up my bags, and then with most of the accoutrements of a conference stand caught a taxi round to my hotel for the weekend. As the crow flies it was barely a quarter of a mile, but with all the road and building works taking place in Birmingham it would have been closer to a mile to walk and the taxi had to drive nearly two (though Birmingham’s fiendish one-way system also added to that.)

After checking in and depositing all of my stuff in my room I headed out into town to find some dinner.

I carefully followed the hotels well signed walking route that promptly took me on a quarter of a mile loop around a building site to the bottom of the hotel approach ramp, at which point I noticed most other people were ignoring the no pedestrian’s signs and walking down the ramp.

I headed over to Grand Central to find somewhere to eat, which took longer than it should have done as several places at 20:30 on a Friday evening had already closed their kitchens for the evening. Eventually I found solus in the Nando’s and had a very pleasant, if not particularly healthy dinner,

Having finally found food I headed back to the hotel, and ignoring the signs took the short cut up the access ramp to the hotel, shaving a good five minutes off the return walk.

I had a quick nightcap in the bar before turning in.