Europe 2023, August 15

Started the day with a standard run down along the Birmingham canals heading north. The first kilometre was a bit dodgy running on uneven bricks and a very narrow path, with overhanging trees too. Afterwards it got a bid wider and more like a footpath, although had some confusing intersections. I turned around at 5km after a very dark underpass section that was a little dangerous since you couldn't see the ground.

Had another free breakfast at the hotel, this one wasn't quite as good as London - didn't have any apple juice, chocolate croissants, or muesli and only had tiny dessert spoons for cereal. Otherwise about the same, but more hot food like beans and sausages - who wants that for breakfast.

Watched a bit of the first half of Women's World Cup semi final between Spain and Sweden back in my hotel room, but wasn't much action.

Took a quick bus ride out to nearby Villa Park and Aston Hall. I had at look in the Aston Villa club store but they didn't have any good accessories like magnets, mostly it was just match day shirts. It was very quiet at the ground but at least a couple of other people were inside the store. There was no access to the stadium or any tours due to some redevelopment works.

I had to go all the way around the stadium to get to Aston Hall grounds - some mansion built in the 1600s. The website said tickets were about 10 pounds, didn't seem worth it since I had no other information about.

Back on the bus to the city centre, and starting to get a bit less confusing navigating the streets today. Checked out a few areas of the city that I didn't go to yesterday, then had lunch back at the hotel since it was close by. My legs were feeling better than usual so went out to walk some more for the afternoon.

Headed down south along the river canals, a pretty average looking area at first but becomes better further down. Went as far as The Roundhouse, some old historic circular building. There was just one room open to the public with some information. Walked back along some other canals and came across Black Sabbath bridge, had forgotten they were from Birmingham. Also discovered there was a whole other restaurant and entertainment area just south of the city centre, and it even had a normal street layout.

Back to the hotel via the city, stopped at Sports Direct and found a good Adidas running shirt for half price, 22 pounds was a good deal - 44 not so much. Got the usual random assortment of food for dinner when I can't be bothered with anything else - bread or yoghurt, maybe a donut or pastry, and an energy drink, flavoured milk, or soft drink.

I had many other things originally on the list for Birmingham but on closer inspection they didn't seem as good unfortunately.

• Cadbury World - poor review, short tour and no good samples at the end
• National Sea Life centre - similar poor review about the range of sea life and the duration of visit
• Pen Museum - who knew they had a museum for pens, but 10 pounds seems expensive
• Thinktank science museum - more aimed at children than adults

I had a few similar late issues when planning potential activities for a few days in Copenhagen - to be discussed later. It shows that some good research is important to work out how many days you want to spend in a location.