May 11, Exploring Durham, Day 1

He said:
This was our first day to explore Durham, and the sun was shining bright all day.

We decided to see the area, especially the outside attractions, starting with the Durham University Botanic Garden.
https://www.dur.ac.uk/botanic.garden/

The weather tomorrow is supposed to be wet, so we are saving the interior locations for then.

The goal was to walk everywhere, no cars or busses, and since the city is compact, it worked out great. But, we also did take a 1 hour boat cruise, learning little due to the heavy northern accent of the boat's pilot and announcer. Still, it was a beautiful day for a slow cruise.

She Said:

Just up from a good night’s sleep in the big, puffy bed at the Durham Marriott Royal County Hotel (!) This is certainly not your mother’s Marriott – more like your Great-Grandmother’s Marriott. In a good way. Wonky angles, carved bannisters, ancient clocks, oh, and views of Durham Castle and Cathedral. A-OK.

Yesterday was the necessary looooong day (and night) getting here. Made a bit easier by the upper deck, flat bed Biz Class seats on British Air. Even though R says I slept 5-6 hours on the plane, I still had that head-bobbing nap thing on the train from London to Durham. R is a task master when it comes to “jumping on the new time zone” so after dinner (a very respectable spaghetti Bolognese at a riverside bistro) we walked around Durham until 9:30 pm when we returned to the hotel and crashed until 6:30 am this morning.

Durham is a University, Cathedral and Castle town. Old in all the right ways – narrow, cobblestone streets, squares with monuments, ruins. We poked around on the Cathedral grounds – a Unesco World Heritage Site – and ducked into one of the College dorm squares. Quite beautiful in the late dusk of northern England.

More later when we are back from today’s exploring…

Another few words about Durham –

The Elvet Bridge over the Wear River (just outside our window) was built by the Bishop of Durham (1153 – 1195).

Most of the retail streets in Durham are Pedestrian Only.

The Horseman statue in the Market Square honors Charles William Vane Stewart – and the statue is as pompous as his name.

The walking paths on either side of the Wear River are lined with the most wonderfully fragrant wild garlic.

We started out today heading towards the Botanic Gardens. On the way, we popped into one of the ubiquitous 12th century churches that blanket the English countryside – St. Oswald’s. A respectable date of 1156. Fared well until about 1821, when it began to sink dangerously into the earth, another victim of the heavy coal mining around and below the Durham area. (Buildings that have not been extensively cleaned for a couple hundred years show the surface damage done by burning coal – black, greasy, drab soot makes a white stone building look positively ugly. Lucky for us, Durham is an affluent community full of money and pride and most buildings look positively beautiful!)

The Durham Botanic Gardens is a peaceful, well laid out, gem of an attraction just a mile or so from our hotel. We lazily walked the paths reading plant labels to our hearts’ content. Great, largescale Art appeared in unexpected places, giving us both our favorite things – R was happy photographing flowers and weird plants galore and I was thrilled whenever we came upon a giant set of metal pupae hanging from a tree (showing the stages of a bug’s birth) or a lifesized Chinese Warrior hidden in the Bamboo Forest. A fellow photographer gave us a hot tip about a wood close by that was carpeted right this very minute with the most spectacular bluebells. We walked the short distance there and were rewarded with a fantastical, magical, almost overwhelming site. Bluebells everywhere – on the wood hillsides, among the trees and along a path. Up to a meadow and down to a ravine. Yay for the kindness of strangers!

Stopped at The Picnic Basket for fat, homemade delicious sandwiches and ate our lunch in our spacious hotel room.

Next up, a walk through the Cathedral and Castle grounds on our way to The Observatory. (We are saving the inside tours of the Cathedral and Castle for tomorrow as rain is forecast.) Too many crew trucks still hanging around at the Cathedral. We learned last evening when we walked there that the movie “Thor” had just finished filming there and the crew was breaking down the sets and loading up to leave. Funny to see a corral full of (numbered) fake stone arches and walls. And miles and miles of electrical cords.

The quiet streets around the Cathedral are perfectly 16th and 17th century. Many houses are student apartments – how cool to be at Durham University and living inside History!

With a whole afternoon to kill, an hour’s boat cruise on the Wear River was just the ticket. Beautiful views and jolly boat-mates. The pilot gave a running commentary of what we were seeing peppered with amusing (we think) anecdotes of this and that. Truth be told, his northern England accent was so thick we really didn’t understand anything he was saying. No worries. The day was warm (enough), the sun was out and we were on the river. A treat.

More walking (my phone says 9.6 miles today, but that sounds a bit much) - A false start up one lane, a look up another somewhat muddy path and finally the right road up to The Observatory. Lovely. From a distance. Turns out the road to The Observatory is private and the only way to approach it is via the muddy path. Since I had on my very cute and comfortable “city” walking shoes, I wasn’t about to sacrifice them to the mud. So, I’ll wear my boots tomorrow (rain expected) and maybe we’ll attempt The Observatory again.

Back down the hills to Marks & Spencer. A fine, French Chardonnay for me and a Chocolate Porter for R. Fresh salads, good cheese and a gooey dessert. M&S is the best.

Fat and happy in our room for the night.

Photos:

Botanic Garden and nearby bluebell hills