Durham

From Northumbria and Hadrian's Wall we travelled on to Durham. Along the way we drove past field after field of beautiful yellow blooms. Someone told us this was rapeseed, which is used to make canola oil and animal fodder.
We arrived after the Tourist Information Center had closed, so we decided to stay at the Marriott. It was a treat to have a bathroom big enough to turn around in! And two flat screen TV's! Parking in Durham is hard to find, so we were delighted when they said we could leave our car in their parking lot while we toured the city.



On Easter Sunday we toured Durham Cathedral where the remains of St. Cuthbert are located, along with many other artifacts from early Christianity. They even had a first edition of the King James translation of the Bible. This is the same King James from Scotland, who was the son of Mary Queen of Scots and who was crowned King of England when Elizabeth I died.



The remains of St. Cuthbert are located here. The coffin that was carved from wood for him in 1670 (he was disenterred and reburied in Durham when he was declared a saint)is actually on display inside the cathedral. He is said to be holding the head of St. Oswald, who was once the King of Northumbria.



We also toured Durham Castle, where today students at Durham University reside. The kitchen that was built there in 1832 still cooks 3 meals a day for about 300 students. The dining hall looks just like the one in the movie Oliver.



It was a beautiful day. We took a lot of photos.

York, Day One

After a 9-hour flight,a 6-hour bus ride and a mile and a half walk, we finally arrived at our destination....the Foss Bank Guest House in York, England. Foss (in Latin fosse is a ditch) is the name of the narrow canal that is located across the street from our B & B. It is one of two rivers in York, which originally made it an advantageous place for people to settle.
Here is a photo of the city's most prominent landmarks, York Minster. Built between 1220and 1468, it is one of the oldest Anglican churches in England. It was built on top of the Roman fortress that was built by the 9th Roman legion sent here by the Emperor Vespasian in AD 71. Years later, it was spared by Henri VIII when he dismantled all of the monasteries in England.



Another prominent structure in York is the city wall, which was built by the Romans when they were in charge. It reportedly took 3 legions of Roman soldiers to keep the Brits under control! This is a photo of the ancient city wall at Bootham Bar, with York Minster in the background. There are four main gates around the city wall. One close to our B & B is called Monk Bar, off Monkgate and fairly close to Huntington Rd. In the lingo of York, a gate is a street and a bar is a gate.



The walls are open to the public during the day and are an easy and safe way to traverse the city. We walked from Bootham Bar to Monk Bar and saw some pretty amazing views from the top of the wall. Here is a view of someone's backyard garden:



On the outside of the city walls there were thousands of yellow daffodils in bloom:



We stopped by this old church (St. Cuthbert's) to see the "Devil's door." The tour guide on the bus said this door would have been left open during baptisms. If the child cried when holy water was sprinkled that meant the devil was leaving, and this is the door he would use to exit the church. Just to the right of the Devil's door was a small window, which was used to pass food and clothing out to lepers.