We walked up to the city centre - Christine wanted to make a quick call to Boots and also to find a birthday card for Ellie, the eldest grand daughter.
We opted to go to St Peter's Collegiate Church in the centre of Wolverhampton for the 11 am service. This church maintains an extensive choral tradition with several choirs and around 100 singers. Today it was the men and boys choir with around 10 boys and 20 men. The main organ (they have three in total) dominates the nave as it sits high up in the roof over a screen that divides the church into two.
There were around 80 people in the congregation and although the liturgy followed a traditional pattern, albeit in modern language, it did not feel unduly formal or stiff. We did not stay for coffee afterwards as Mike wanted to make a prompt start on the car shuffle.
After a quick lunch back at the boat he set off for the station - we were actually moored alongside but the pedestrian route is quite convoluted!
After one train to Birmingham and a second to Burton-on-Trent, both of which were on time, he had quite a wait before being able to proceed. The remainder of the journey was by V3 Villager bus which on Sundays only runs every two hours. He walked into town with the sun still shining. However, as he located the bus stop, the promised rain arrived.
So, it was back to Sainsbury for a pot of tea in their otherwise empty restaurant - only £1! By the time he had wandered through the shopping centre the sun had returned and there was a chance to sit in a small park area until time to return to the bus stop.
There were around 6 or 7 people waiting, none of whom regularly use the service so there was a certain amount of nervousness when it failed to show for around 8 minutes after the due time, during which it disappeared from the display panel!
In the end it did arrive and finally dropped Mike right at the pedestrian entrance to Mercia Marina. The car we quickly located and Mike set off to drive to Oxley Marine where we are leaving the boat for the next four weeks whilst we are at home and a new engine is to be fitted. During the journey the heavy rain storm that added a bit of spice to the F1 Grand Prix at Silverstone also deposited the wet stuff on the road back to Wolverhampton! Fortunately, Mike did not have to make a pit stop to change tyres on his car!
We had been told that it was easy to get a bus from the boatyard into Wolverhampton and, indeed, the stop was very close at hand. However, Mike then discovered that the service is hourly! Even more surprisingly was the fact that the next service was due in 4 minutes - which it did and took him back into the city centre, just a five minute walk back to the boat.
Christine had been cleaning and packing and had started the roast dinner which Mike then completed - hence missing out on uploading this blog until the next day!
Early evening, four fuel boats arrived up the lock flight and all found an overnight mooring in the basin.
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