Durham Lumiere

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When creating a blog entry, the first thing I have to do is select a location from a list via: Continent >> Country >> County >> City/Town. It just took me an unusually long time to figure out which county Durham is in. Look up if you don't yet understand why that's funny.

Sigh. But that's not the UK/US Mix-Up of the Week. This is:

1. "Toilet" is the popular UK term for "bathroom" or "restroom". Easy to figure out, no problems there.

2. There are signs in most of the bathrooms saying the water from the tap is drinkable. Makes sense. Good system.

Except sometimes we have an exchange like this:

Me: Are there any water fountains anywhere?
Coursemate: I don't think so, but you can get some water from the toilet.
Me: ...
*few seconds later*
Me: OH! Yeah, okay, good idea.

So it looks like I need to stop predicting where I'm going to go next, because I almost never actually go there. Instead of Bamburgh (pronounced to rhyme with "Edinburgh" I'm told) Castle, this weekend we went to Durham to see a light show that is supposed to be spectacular.



Since I came to England in 2007, I've been hearing wonderful things about the small city of Durham. Yesterday a few of my coursemates and I went to see its annual light festival, called 'Lumiere.' Two of us went early so we could explore Durham a bit before the light show began.

Unfortunately, we arrived at the city when the sun was setting (just before 4pm), so we didn't get an ideal view (or many good pictures), but the festival was fantastic and we will definitely return sometime during the day.






A view of Durham Castle from the river below. The Castle is the home of Durham University, which I'm told is one of the more prestigious ones in the UK. I loved the idea of going to Uni in a castle. There's a system called SCONAL, which allows UK Graduate students to access almost all University libraries in the UK and Ireland (Oxford, Cambridge and Warwick are the exceptions). So if I register for that, I could visit Durham and do work in a library/castle directly next to one of the most amazing cathedrals in England.

I don't think I've mentioned today how much I LOVE THIS COUNTRY.

Ahem. Anyway.



Durham's Christmas markets haven't started yet, but as you can see, they've set up and turned on the lights. Newcastle has as well. I worried that mid-November would be too early (violating the rule some Americans have about not doing anything Christmas-related until after Thanksgiving), but the streets look beautiful. Very excited for the Christmas markets.



Unfortunately this was the best picture I could get of the Cathedral exterior. In order to be far enough to get the whole thing in the frame (it is massive) I had to be too far for a good picture in the dimming light. But, Newcastle is ten minutes from Durham by a train that is very cheap (especially with a student rail card) so we will definitely come back to visit in the daylight sometime.

Also - possibly due to the light show - the Castle was not open for visitors ("ABSOLUTELY NO TOURISTS" said the sign), so we will be back to see that as well.

We were not allowed to take pictures of the Cathedral interior. It was huge. "Austere" was a word my coursemate used. Amazing. A choir was rehearsing in the choirstalls, and listening to that while we wandered around (the acoustics in cathedrals like this one are fantastic), was an incredible experience.

They had a plaque showing all the priors and dates they served. The first one started in 995. The US became a country about halfway down the list.

I think the thing I love most about cathedrals is that you don't need to be particularly religious for it to be a spiritual experience. Being there with the artwork and the music and the grandeur of the place is humbling and incredible, whatever you believe. Although I regret that I can't share that with you all (I feel like words can't do places like this justice), I understand why they don't want people taking pictures.



Although the two of us arrived before Lumiere officially started, our other coursemates waited until later and ended up getting stuck in the masses of people who arrived at the same time. The above is a picture of the Durham police attempting to create some kind of order in the chaos. Thinking of Boston's Fourth of July celebration, I wonder if they could have done with a system like this at home, or whether it just made everything worse.

We were in a restaurant by the cathedral when they closed off the street, so although we were allowed to stay, we had to wait in a shopfront until our friends were allowed past the barrier.

But it was worth it. A video of part of the Cathedral light show is above. I think it was telling a story of the Cathedral's history. There was lots of organ music and chanting, and the first bit showed the silhouette of a wheat field at night with the full moon rising over it. Later, they showed what my coursemate said was the Norman Invasion.

I'm not sure which part of history the video above represents. You can hear one of my coursemates saying "it looks like chicken pox" just before my patronizing, "you know this is going in my blog, right?" Later you can hear another coursemate (very quietly) saying, "hi."



The inside (we were allowed to take pictures of this) looked like Hogwarts. Amazing.



The cloisters. Not sure what this was meant to represent, but it was cool.



After this, we followed the crowd around the outside of the building and came across a lawn with more fire displays. They were a bit bizarre. A band in a gazebo (lined with little clay pots of fire) was playing very strange music.



There were a lot of these set up. The fire inside made the words and designs glow, which was cool.



And a swing.

There were three other people with us, but I seem to have forgotten to take a picture of them. Sorry guys.

One of them had heard, from a fantastic British trivia show called "QI," that four of the fifty US States are technically Commonwealths (Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, Virginia and Kentucky).

I tried to explain that the title actually makes little to no difference (i.e., not the same way that Canada and Australia are part of the Commonwealth), but I don't think I did a very good job. American readers, help me out?

A narrow, cobblestone street descended from the building to the edge of the grounds, passing a few more light displays. I'm not sure what they symbolized, but they were beautiful.





One depicted a person sitting on a roof, but apparently I neglected to take a picture of it.



This is from the riverside walk. I had to step off the path to take this, which made my coursemates nervous that I was going to end up in the river. Cute.




Although the crowds got a bit intense, I loved this impression of Durham. It looks like it has everything I adore about small English cities. A few parts, especially near the Castle and Cathedral, were exactly how we in the States picture European streets. I pointed this out to a coursemate, who for some reason wasn't nearly as excited about this as I was. (But thanks for humoring me anyway.)

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Comments

[Yvonne]

ha ha
I can't stop laughing at the pic of Lucy and me, it looks like we've been in Honey I Shrunk the Kids, I don't remember the swing being that big :o

[Gemma]

Fantastic blog Sarah. Durham is really beautiful. Thanks for sharing this with us.

[Kristen]

Mary Catherine and I were just talking about the "commonwealth" thing. It doesn't mean much, just a cooler place to live! Cool castle pictures! The light show seems awesome. Great that you get to explore so much!

[Tim]

Great
Just wanted to let you know your pictures and writing is great! Ill be visiting England soon and its nice to know what its like. cheers from vancouver, canada