A Day in Durham

Yesterday, 12 September was a travel day. As travel days go, it was virtually problem-free and straight-forward. This is exactly what you want for a travel day. We arose, finished off the finessing of our packing, checked out of our room and said goodbye to the Native apartments next to George Square. It was a little sad wheeling our luggage down Buchanan Street, the paved pedestrian street that takes you almost down to the river Clyde. We use Buchanan a lot to traverse that north south journey, so it feels a lot like a home street to us. At any rate, we were to pick up our hire car at midday and we still had an hour to kill so we headed into the Crystal Palace and ate a breakfast muffin and had a coffee. We had a chat too and got ourselves ready to say goodbye to lovely Glasgow for this last part of our holiday.

The young man who served us at the hire car place was gorgeous, smart, articulate, tall and friendly. He looked like a twenty something Omar Sharif. He did a great job in explaining everything to us and answering our questions. He carried my luggage down the stairs and loaded both sets of luggage into the back of a medium-size SUV, a Nissan Juke. Very nice and I was happy with the car they gave us.

With adjustments to mirrors made and a quick run-through of what does what on the dash, off we went on our way to Durham. We visited Durham almost two years to the day in 2023. We loved it. It was smart, historic, unpretentious, friendly, well-equipped for tourists and offers the delights of nature, the River Weir, its banks covered on both sides by large trees, sentinels to the river as it winds and curves through the town and out the other side, and the grandeur of human ingenuity in its magnificent medieval cathedral and castle.

The journey was without challenge. It rained on and off, but it did not bucket down, merely rained and then abruptly stopped, only to repeat the pattern every five to ten minutes. Not the whole trip but perhaps half of it. We stopped at a Services for a coffee and a tart and that gave me a break from driving. Why not. We reached Durham around 4pm or just after with still plenty of light for us to check in, stow our bags and walk up over the 12th century Elvet Bridge and into the town. There we had a pint and a burger at a local pub. It had won awards for its burgers, and we could see why. Meat that melts in your mouth. Incredible.

I am still recovering from my virus thingy so I remain congested. Not a great night’s sleep for either of us. The bells of Durham Cathedral would have rung more quietly in our room last night than was my breathing. Poor Chris.

Today, 13 September, Saturday, we arose and took our laundry to the same service we took it to two years ago. The same size basket cost us almost 50% less here than it did in London. We tipped the young woman for getting it done for us in the one day. We visited an old café friend, Vennels, for a coffee, and then walked up to the cathedral to take another look. It did not disappoint. Durham Cathedral is special, and it holds a special place in our hearts. Its colour palette, its size, the architecture of the columns and ceiling and naves and side chapels all need to be just gazed at. They possess an ambience that is enthralling. They ooze history.

As they were setting up for a service and had roped some areas off, we could not get around the main altar to the back of the cathedral where lies St Cuthbert. A pity. But I have great photos from last time, so never mind. To think, that in medieval times, the pilgrimage to the tomb of St Cuthbert in Durham Cathedral was as important as were the pilgrimages to Canterbury Cathedral to the tomb of St Thomas a Becket.

However, we did walk through the Venerable Bede’s resting place in a side chapel, and I heard a well-spoken grandma tell her little grand-daughter that Bede is a most interesting man, that he really is the English equivalent of Leonardo da Vinci, and it would be well worth your time looking him up to read about him. The little girl was intrigued.

We had a morning tea of scones, clotted cream, and strawberry jam with ginger beer and rose lemonade. I half expected Ratty and Moley to join us at any moment. We had visited this café before. It is called Cafedral and is situated just down the hill from the church. We skipped lunch today and took a long walk along the river instead. It was just lovely. A little light rain every now and then, but we had our brollies in our bags, and it ruined nothing. By the time we had finished our walk, it was time to go back to the laundrette and pick up our washing which we did, as we arose from the river-bank not at all far from the laundry service.

A little sit down and a rest in the bar of our hotel and then off to Rudi’s for dinner which serves authentic Neapolitan pizza. We did not have a booking so accepted two seats at the bar where they make the pizzas and put them in the pizza oven. Two spritzes, some incredible garlic bread served like a pizza, and our Cinghiale pizza followed. Absolutely delicious. A little walk in the cool of the evening before retiring back to the hotel.

Durham remains lovely for us. A quick little visit down memory lane on our way south to York, which journey we will undertake tomorrow with a little stop-off in Ripon.Baca lagi