Cathedral and Shop

Today's Canal - BCN (even if we did not move!)

We did not have to make an early start today as we planned to walk to the cathedral for the main 11am morning service, about half an hour away.

Crossing Centenary Square, we could see the new Octagon Tower is gradually dominating the skyline. With 49 floors it will be, for now, the tallest building in the city. It is expected to provide 364 apartments of varying sizes.

We were in good time for the service. Although not everyone comking was here at the start, eventually the cathedral was quite full. The choir was a small all-female adult choir who nevertheless made music that filled the building. The atmosphere generally was friendly and there was a good mixture of ages, gender, ethnicity and, as far as we could tell, socio-economic. Almost no children, however but plenty of what seemed to be students.

This evening there will be a celebration of the completion of a three year project to restore the four splendid Burne Jones windows to their original glory. With sun shining, they were an impressive sight.

Afterwards we wanted to walk down i to the Bull Ring shopping centre to return one of the items bought yesterday and to give Christine a further opportunity for look for items not found yesterday. As we walked through New Street station concourse we had a close bullish encounter. This mechanical sculpture was originally created for the 2022 Commonwealth Games but has been retained by popular demand. (It could do we a little better presentation)

Eventually we were able to start to walk back to the boat, trying out different routes to see which is the best - they are all nearly half an hour from the start of New Street, but it was highly suitable weather for strolling. By the time we reached the boat it was well past out normal lunch hour!

Not a lot else happened, save for preparing tonight's roast dinner. Did take a moment to take a further view of the Octagon Tower that even better shows how it will dominate and how most of its residents will have a wide panorama.

And finally a view of our mooring - still not too busy. The new four day mooring rules are perhaps having some impact.

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