Durham

Durham is an easy daytrip from Newcastle, and is a pretty old university town, featuring a very old cathedral. So of course I went there. I like travel that features going to really obvious monuments, makes it so much easier to not get lost when you step out of the station, in that bewildered state of being somewhere new, thinking, 'now where is the cathedral' to respond to self 'maybe I should go ask at that large pointy building on the hill, they might know...'

Anyway, Durham Cathedral is like many others of its kind: large, pointy, stone, old. It features a 'cathedra' (bishop's throne, hence Cathedral being a church where the bishop sits) that is a couple of inches higher than the church at Rome ( a detail I particularly enjoyed, do love it when those who are leading the flock by demonstrating the humility of Christ decide to get petty) and the tomb of the Venerable Bede, a monk who wrote the first history of England (6th or 7th century). Also features a tower that goes 325 steps up, and wow that's a lot isn't it? After going interminably round in circles ever upward I burst forth gasping onto the roof, and, once I recovered, enjoyed getting snap happy with the beautiful views all around while watching other people burst forth gasping from the stairs.

I circled back to the ground, and went for a walk along the river, which is very pretty, just beginning to get a bit autumnal and then ate a scone. Tea is very good in England. You do get some shockers, but in general the standard is much higher than in Aus. I think that is because the people would revolt if it wasn't. Possibly why France has had more revolutions than England: the English might be oppressed and downtrodden, but there's nothing like a nice cup of tea is there?