Durham and the North

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Sunday 26 July - our next stop was Durham, where we arrived on a wet Sunday afternoon, although unlike home, there was no wind, so it wasn't a problem really. We had booked 2 nights at St Chads, which is a university hall of residence but becomes a Youth Hostel over the summer. It was right opposite Durham Cathedral, and just a stones throw from old Durham town. We had a huge room at the hostel and there was car parking 10 minutes away, so we could just leave the car there till it was time to move on. Durham was SO quiet and not at all touristy, which was a nice surprise, and in fact the whole of our time in the North it was like that, one of Britains best kept secrets?

Durham is a great town, with the huge and magnificent cathedral as its centrepiece. The old town is like an island bordered by the river which is like a moat around the town. Found an excellent Lebanese restaurant for dinner just down the road and then went back the next night it was so good. Spent the next day pottering around the town and did a guided tour of the cathedral which was fascinating, and a place you can easily spend all afternoon, which we did. Great view from the top of the bell tower. Also took a tour of Durham Castle, which is now part of the university, and right in the centre of everything.

While we were in Durham we had a surprise, we had found ourselves on page 3 of the Dominion Post and headline news on Stuff! Started getting texts and messages from folk back home about it - we had no idea that we had lost a camera memory card while in Somerset, and a lovely couple from Wells had been trying to track us down to return the card. Amazingly, they managed to find us on Facebook and thought we were from Wellington, so contacted the paper to try and find us!

After a lot of time spent sorting out the memory card saga, we finally left Durham late Tuesday morning, and headed north to Newcastle, where we had a look around the town and a walk along the waterfront. Interesting city, with seven bridges spanning the river Tyne, unfortunately one of them was a bus lane only, which we found out too late through the traffic fine we got later! Was good to see the ads for the Rugby World Cup everywhere - we actually got to see the cup itself a few days later in Alnwick, exciting!

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Photos

Durham Castle and University
Did a great tour of this castle which is now the university!

Durham castle on the river
dominates the beautiful town of Durham

Pretend beach on the river Tyne
Newcastle

Kittyhawks and their guarno
Newcastle

Interesting sign
Newcastle