Quirky fact: the former industrial city of Birmingham in the Midlands of England has more canals than Venice. Britain’s canals are the country’s best-kept secret. You can step from a busy traffic junction choked with fumes and suddenly find yourself in a peaceful corridor of water, banked with trees and flowers. Birds chirp, butterflies flutter, swans hiss when you get too close. It’s beautiful.
We picked up our traditional narrowboat from Alvechurch Marina, a few miles outside Birmingham. They give you a careful briefing and have training videos online but there really isn’t much to it. My steering was a little shaky for the first few hours but you soon get the hang of it.
In any case there are few things more relaxing than chugging through the beautiful rolling countryside with the promise of a beer in a traditional canal-side pub at the end of your journey. It’s enough to soothe the most nervous first-timer.
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