Day Trip to North East - Durham
We drove to North East to see what's there. First we went to Durham, a historic cathedral city. Before we visited the famous cathedral, we had a lovely brunch at a cute cafe called Flat White Kitchen. The dining area was bright with tons of natural morning lights. The decor was just my taste. Importantly the food was great. It was J's pick. Thank you J!
I had a stack of two huge ricotta pancakes with fresh fruit, maple syrup, and cinder toffee butter. In fact it was a half-size portion. The full portion comes with four pancakes. I was glad I ordered a half although I couldn't finish the dish up. The taste and texture of the pancakes were wonderful, but the portion was still a little bit too large for me.
J enjoyed his egg benedict. While shredded pork instead of ham was a surprise for him, he said the dish was tasty.
It was only a couple of minute walk from the cafe to the cathedral. Durham Cathedral, formally Cathedral Church of Christ, Blessed Mary the Virgin and St Cuthbert of Durham was constructed between 1093 and 1133 to store the relics of Cuthbert (a saint of the early Northumbrian church in the Celtic tradition and Saint Bede (an English monk who lived in a monastery in Northumberland, known as the First English historian, author of the Ecclesiastical History of the English People (c.731)). The building is the largest and finest example of Norman architecture in England. Interestingly the bold and progressive style pointed toward the rise of Gothic architecture, which originated in 12th-century France and was widely used, especially for cathedrals and churches, until the 16th century. Because of its importance of the early Benedictine monastic community and incomparable architecture as well as other reasons, the cathedral has become a World Heritage site since 1986.
The rose window was one of many highlights of the cathedral. The original glasses date back from the 15th-century although they were replaced during the 19th century. Current woodworks including the quire stalls date back to the mid-17 century since the civil war damaged the cathedral's woodworks badly. The marble paving is relatively new – it was done in the 19th century. The Cloister was also built in the late 12th century and then it was remodelled to its present form in the early 15th century. A series of renovations has been going on here and there for several hundred years.
Later I happened to learn that the Cloister was a filming location for Harry Potter's first and second movies. If I had known it before our trip, I could have checked the actual spots, filming angles, etc... At least I have a photo that clearly shows the arch-shaped windows that you can find in the movies. We also saw interesting exhibitions of treasures of St Cuthbert, including his original 7th century wooden coffin.
There was a castle behind the cathedral, which used to be the residence of the prince-bishops of Durham and is currently a part of Durham University. The building can be seen only by joining a guided tour because the building is used as the university's offices, library, theater, student accommodation, and so on. Because of the limitation to visit and the lack of our time, we didn't see the castle this time. Perhaps, next time. The downtown of Durham was small and nice to work around. There was a little pop-up shop to sell bread, jam, condiments, arts, etc made by locals, where J bought some chili sauces. It was a short visit but we had a very good time in Durham.
To be continued...
