New tricks learned . . . Canal Cruising 101

First full day in England - our hostess Jennifer served some of her homegrown eggs, sausages and bacon.  Check out the blue eggs!  

Blue Chicken Eggs - who knew?

The Aussies, Judy and Robert gave us a lift down to the Canal Cruising boatyard where we were to pick up our Canal boat - home for the next two weeks.  

Picking up the "Maria" - dropped off by our new
Aussie friends from the B&B

We checked in, then crossed the street into town to pick up groceries and arrange for SIM cards for our phones.  Huh!  SIM cards at home run around $15.  In Britain, Ł1.  For Ł10 here, we get unlimited texting for a month, and 1 GB of data.  Calls are 30P/minute, but we won’t be doing much calling here.  I was paying $50 a month for the same service in Canada, and figured I had a good deal!  Groceries were pretty much in line with what we pay at home, as are the pubs.  So everything in Britain is not overpriced!  Maybe in the big cities, but we haven’t done that part yet.

Glen at the helm of the Maria
 - looking like a natural!

And now to the Canal Boats - aka Narrow Boats.  A 45-minute lesson on running one of these 45-foot long barges, then a trip through two locks to learn how to operate the ancient mechanisms and we’re on our own on a two-week adventure!  This should be fun :-)  

In the lock - raised up.  

Having a drink at the Plume of Feathers -
through the parking lot and canal-side

We cruised from Stone to a place called Barlaston in about 4 hours, navigated 4 sets of locks on our own, then moored for the evening.  Conveniently, we were right outside the Plume of Feathers pub . . . so after an hour-long walk, we stopped into the pub for a bite and a pint.  England is sure different from Canada.  We went inside, ordered a drink and a pie, and then took our drinks outside, through the parking lot, and down to the canal-side to the picnic tables where families and cyclists were all sitting enjoying the evening.  The bartender came to get us about 15 minutes later to let us know our pies were ready.  Can you imagine walking through a Canadian parking lot with a beer in your hand?!?!?  The English have it right.  Nothing bad happened except we really enjoyed the evening and conversations with the locals.