A Day Trip in Durham

Today is first saturday since I reached Newcastle and we planned to go to Durham. Durham is just a 15 min train ride down from Newcastle and it's a small town, suitable for a day trip. The place was also made famous after it was used as one of the site for the movie, Harry Potter (though I'm still not very sure which is the part).

We bought the tickets at the central station and it costs 4.80 pds for a day pass (wouldn't consider it to be too expensive). Well, in England, you dun really need to get a ticket to board the train unlike in Singapore. However, there will be random spot checks by the conductors and if you are 'suay' enough to get caught without a ticket, you will be liable for a fine of 20 pds or more. So it's up to you whether you want to take the risk anot.

We reached Durham in the late morning. The place is awesome. From the elevated ground, we are able to capture the overview of the whole town. The Durham Cathedral stands high and prominent admist the rest of the buildings. It really looks very grand from far, can't imagine how beautiful it will be when it's just standing right in front of me!

Durham Cathedral

Durham is small, posh and exquisite. We walked along the traditional english, cobbled street to reach the town centre. The street is rather narrow with rows of shop houses by the side. You can also see people busking by the road side. In fact, it is a common sight in England. After a 15min walk, we reached the outskirt of the Cathedral. The view was magnificent. There is an open patch of field outside the Cathedral and Durham Castle is just opposite the Cathedral. Durham Castle was the prince bishops' home until 1837, when it became the first college of the new university. It remains a university hall. We din go in to the castle due to the limited time and therefore have to choose between the castle or cathedral. In the end, we chose to go into the Durham Cathedral.

Durham Cathedral is considered to be Britain's most magnificent Romanesque struture. It is vast and has a pretty fortified look because although it may have been built to pay tribute to God and to house the holy bones of St Cuthbert, it also needed to withstand attacks by the Scots and Northumberland tribes on the Normans.

The interior is spectacular. Durham was the first European cathedral to be roofed with stone-ribbed vaulting, which upheld the heavy stone roof and made it possible to build pointed transverse arches, the first in Britain and a great architectural achievement. It's a pity that we are not allowed to take pictures in the holy ground.

We paid 1.40 pds to enter the tower leading to the top of the cathedral. It is a long way up with a total of 325 steps and it gets kinda dizzy when we walked up the spiral staircase. Nonetheless, it's worth it as the view from the top was simply breathtaking.