The West Midlands are my oyster- Part 1

For a mere £33 I got  myself a one week 'go anywhere in the West Midlands' transport card. I could use it on any bus, train, or tram in the English West Midlands, and it had already got me to Coventry. It worked just as well in the other direction too. I spent a day heading out to the north-west of Birmingham, through the once 'Black Country' to Wolverhampton and Dudley, using the new tram service.

Wolverhampton never seemed to have all that much going for it, apart from a high profile football team. At least it's now got a very pedestrian-friendly town centre to explore, as does just about every English city these days. They got rid of the cars, and it all still works, works much better in fact. Who'd have thought that Wolverhampton might ever be a pleasant place to wander around in?

Likewise Dudley. I returned to Birmingham via a series of buses, with a lunch break in Dudley. There was a statue of a famous footballer here. Duncan Edwards. Never heard of him. Turns out he was a Manchester United player in the 1950s, and he was one of the ones killed in the Munich plane crash in 1958.

This funny old building serves as the Dudley Central Mosque.

And here's what I'd been looking for: the Dudley Zoo. I have childhood memories of a  visit to Dudley Zoo. It's up the side of a hill, leading up to Dudley Castle. There was a substantial fee to enter, and I was a bit tired, and somehow it didn't seem quite worth the effort to go in and climb the hill. Maybe another time?

Then it's back to Birmingham on the top deck of the X8 bus.