In which we Climb More Hills and See More Old Buildings

Jane's Journal Page Notes:
Free falling into the sea of your destiny...

I will go with the height of the sky and the
Depth of the sea to free myself from the dark
Hole of security and fear.

I will not seek solid ground upon which to land.
In my descent I shall ascend
In my ascension I shall be uplifted.

I will not pick myself up and dust myself off
I will fall with the full force of my destiny
Into the sea of truth, pain and love
And emerge with the full strength of the universe in me.

Journal entry:
And it rained overnight, leaving us with a dampish morning, but generally clear weather for the rest of the day. The weather forecasters are not impressing us any more than the ones at home do.

We were up bright and early. Beast didn’t sleep very well: we are directly across from the Durham Workman’s Union Hall, which is at least in part a bar. Lots of music and inebriated noise in the middle of the night. Oh, well. No sirens, so fighting. That’s the good news!

The breakfast at the hotel is served between 8:00 and 9:00. The room, on the ground floor, faces directly out onto the street, just next to the front door. It’s about the size of an average (American) living room, with about six tables sitting two to five people each. There is a bookshelf/cabinet with all the "extras" on it: yoghurt, cereal, fruit, coffee, juice, etc. The meal itself was the usual English breakfast: toast points, sausage AND bacon, egg, tomato. A proper fry-up. BURP! We left quite full.

We had already put our parking passes for the day in our car last night, so we headed directly down to the river. The cathedral doesn’t open until 9:30, so we had some time to burn, which we used by walking along our side of the river on the tow-path, although I‘m not sure it’s an actual tow-path. From that vantage point there is a terrific view of the castle and the cathedral. We passed a few people, some obviously on their way to work, some out for a morning walk, and some tourist types like us. The Wear is one of the those calm English rivers, with weirs. Flat, tame and clear. You can see to the bottom. We walked past the weir-house (is that what it’s called?) and up to the next bridge: Prebends.

I should describe Durham city a bit: The river comes from the east and makes a sharp 90-degree turn to the south as it hits the bluff where castle and cathedral and old city sit. It heads south about 500 yards and then makes a U-turn around the bluff and heads directly north past the castle. So the old parts of the city are between the river on a little peninsula. Rather odd. It makes the downtown area very small and makes a natural barrier for defense.

Upon reaching the other side of Prebends Bridge, we turned back towards the cathedral on that side of the river, following another footpath uphill and into the grounds, although we weren’t exactly sure where we were. We ended up walking 3/4 the circumference of the cathedral just to get to the entrance. Which was a nice tour, really.

This cathedral is architecturally quite different from Lincoln and York. It’s smaller, and older. Much more solid and earthy. Heavy columns, lower ceiling. No flying buttresses, no repeated pointy Norman arches, etc. Inside it also gives much more of the sense of a church in use. There are proper pews in the nave, which is probably part of the reason. Also, behind the nave, in the Galilee chapel, is the tomb of Bede. There is a shrine and altar for St. Cuthbert at the front of the cathedral. Both Beast and I feel that we need to read up on these two guys.

The door knocker is a rather frightening reminder of the real meaning of sanctuary: if you were in trouble the monks would indeed let you in, but if the law was after you, the monks only gave you 39 days to settle your affairs. It wasn’t exactly the unlimited sanctuary as I have always sort of thought.

Another chapter house, another design. Also beautiful, but different from the others again. The Monk’s Dormitories were interesting; they now house much of the cathedral library and a market-cross collection. Really cool. The Treasury was also very educational and beautiful: lots of copes and capes and illuminated manuscripts and so forth. And the remains of Cuthbert‘s coffin. We must figure out why he was so important!

By this time, it was noon. Great timing: the castle closes till 2:00 for the public. So we set off down the hill to find some place to eat. Sparky’s vote was adamantly for the Hogshead. [Thank you Harry Potter!] It was decent pub food--pub food being a new & different concept! Durham is a small enough city that most of the old part of downtown is about five square blocks. Unfortunately, it’s also vertical mileage, which doesn’t show up on maps! I brought the wrong shoes. I just keep reminding myself how strong my legs are getting.

Anyway, we were back to the Castle by two, along with about 25 other people. Since the building is still used by the college and they serve meals there to residents, you are only allowed access with a tour, or as a temporary resident. It’s used as a dorm, weirdly enough, during the school year. We had a very interesting guide; he seemed nervy and scattered but dropped all kinds of knowledge into our heads:

• the food is blessed by virtue of the carved Dei Gratia over the kitchen door.
• the castle was really the bishop’s house, and his downstairs quarters are now a gentlemen-only area.
• the castle is slowly sliding down the hill into the river; they expect it to go completely in a couple hundred years.
• the older dorm rooms have two doors.
• the oldest part of the castle is underground, a chapel that may predate Christianity.
• the name of the river is pronounced “Weer” (sort of like “weird” without the 'd')

After the tour, we walked back (down) through town, stopped at both Boots and Woolworth’s, looked for possibilities for dinner, and eventually went back to the room for a late siesta--mostly enjoyed by Beast. Sparky played his GameBoy and I did crosswords, read and napped briefly.

By 6:00 or so we were out and about looking for a place for dinner. My “Durham Eats” list was providing no real assistance: some of the places were out of business, and most of the others were pubs. We ended up at a place called Hollahan’s on Elvet Bridge, near the bridge itself. It is a trendy little place with "zoned" atmosphere: a sofa with a coffee table in the window, our smallish dinner table with three chairs, tables outside, some more eating and drinking areas up- and down-stairs...

We felt a bit out of place--bringing down the tone they were trying (hard) to achieve--but the waiter was nice to us. He was one of those guys who I would have drooled over when I was here in 1978, but now he’s just a young, silly-haired boy. The food was good, better than pub food. And, sitting as we were in front of the entrance, we had a wonderful view of the street and people passing by, coming in/out of the restaurant and chatting. I also was able to look directly across the street above the shops into the kitchen of a small apartment. It looked homey and cozy, friendly, even more so when the owner began serving drinks to his unseen guests. ;-)

After filling our empty stomachs, we walked (down, then up) back to our digs, packed up all the crud we’d had out over two days, and hit the sheets fairly early. Of course, it was lovely and breezy-cool in the afternoon, but by now the heat of the day has entered our third-floor room and made itself at home. We are right under the roof, and there is no insulation.