Public Transport Christmas (1)

 We're Sending You To Coventry ...

... where we shall make partial acquaintance with this man. We shall also explore this bus route ...

... National Express West Midlands route 8. It is operated by very smart and very expensive electric buses which you and fbb have partially p[aid for. Aren't we generous? 

Here is the route map.

It runs cross city but only a chunk of the northern half concerns us this time.

It starts from the mega Tesco ...

... on Cross Point Business Park but there is no stop where the terminus star appears on the route map. fbb thinks it terminates here ...

... where the usual walk route via the huge car part provides an equally usual disadvantageous trek for the humble pedestrian customer plus hefty shopping bags. Other stops are available.

The traditional terminus pre retail expansion is at Potters Green ...

... where once a service 32 ran.

In inquisitive mode, fbb wondered how frequent this rather splendid looking bus service was in 2025. West Midlands PTE did not want to tell him!

There were lots of 8s. but none for Coventry. Maybe the Sky Blues have declared UDI and there is a secret PTE information casket known only to the residents of Coventry? fbb did not bother to look, but went instead to the National Travel bus site.

Here he found a timetable.

Looks like a twenty minute frequency. But fbb also found an 8B and an 8S. He was confused, until he read that the 8S has been renumbered 8B!

... Cardinal Wiseman's School! Mr Roman Catholic Red-hat is the rather scary bloke in the headline picture above. He was something very important in the Church.  He lived from 1802 to 1865 and one of his jobs was to be big cheese of the 'Central" region of The Church, which included the West Midlands.  

Other Cardinal Wiseman schools are available!

There is the main road stop for the school on route 8 ...

... but in a side road, served only by school buses, where be a diddy little turning circle for the 8B formerly 8S. (Thinks : isn't an 'S' suffix more sensible for Schools services?).

The 8B runs from school to City Centre only; whereas the 8 runs cross city to Allesley.

Here are some of the kiddies enjoying (?) a homily from a Church VIP!

 The Wise Men

We met the Magi with letter "N" for Nazarene Nonentity, a controversial title but one which recognised that Jesus ministry lasted for a paltry three years starting at age 30. The Wise Men did not visit the stable/cattle shed/cave but, as Matthew's Gospel explains ...

Jesus was born in the town of Bethlehem in Judea, during the time when Herod was king. Soon afterward, some men who studied the stars came from the East to Jerusalem and asked, “Where is the baby born to be the king of the Jews? We saw his star when it came up in the east, and we have come to worship him.”

There is no mention of how many there were and no mention of camels. In the picture above we see the Magi on horses with a train of camels and their handlers (on foot) carrying their luggage.

And so they left King Herod, and on their way they saw the same star they had seen in the East. When they saw it, how happy they were, what joy was theirs! It went ahead of them until it stopped over the place where the child was. They went into the house ...

... and when they saw the child with his mother Mary, they knelt down and worshiped him. They brought out their gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh, and presented them to him.

There is no mention that the star or planet or comet or supernova was particularly outstanding; only that it was the light which guided the Magi to the toddler.  They were more like astrologers than astronomers and they would use the stars for all sorts of predictions. This astronomical happening fulfilled prophecies in the Old Testament, whatever it was and however it moved.

Remember that everything in the sky "moves" as the earth turns on its axis. 

We (that is carol writers, nativity play producers, illustrators of kiddies stories and proponents of Artificial Inaccuracy)) have made the whole thing so pretty that it becomes unreal.

Does anyone think that these NOT-three NOT-Kings travelled from Persia on NOT-camels to the NOT-stable with gold crowns on their heads?

But the journey was very real!

Poet T S Eliot seemed to understand the reality (extracts from "The Journey of the Magi") ...

 ... it's that Myrrh for a death again!

Tomorrow we go to Glasgow and London.

 Next Public Transport Christmas blog : Sat 20 Dec