"It has ever been my delight to learn or to teach or to write." ~ Venerable Bede

Well, here we are in Durham, England. For some reason we are staying in a hotel over a pub on a Friday night!!! Not very good planning. Oh well, here's hoping the crowd isn't rowdy tonight and things settle out early and sleep will happen. We arrived via train around 11 am and we didn't realize there were reserved seats on the train, so had to move twice!! So, we learned something and have reserved seats for our trip to York on Sunday!
We dropped our bags at the hotel and made our way to Durham Cathedral for the afternoon. This is the final resting place of St. Cuthbert, so we feel like we have completed our pilgrimage.
Legend has it that as the monks were travelling with St. Cuthbert's body, the wagon became stuck and would not move. Apparently, they called a 3 day fast and prayers for the saint during which time St. Cuthbert told one of the monks his coffin must be taken to "DunHolm". After the revelation, the wagon was able to be be moved but none of the monks had heard of this place or knew where to find it. But, by chance, they met a milkmaid on Mount Joy who was wandering, searching for her lost Dun cow which she had last seen at DunHolm. Taking this as a sign, the monks followed the milkmaid who guided them to a "wooded hill-island formed by a tight gorge-like meander of the River Wear". When they arrived they built first a wooden and then a stone structure of Durham Cathedral and then the settlement of Durham grew.

 So this happened on our train ride. Assuming a stag party on their way to a golf course starting their weekend drinking at 10 am on a Friday. 

 A sign on the way into Durham Cathedral asking for donations as it costs 150,000 pounds per week (in Canadian dollars about 13,000,000 a year) to keep it in good repair. Yikes!!

 Site of our picnic lunch today. Andrew getting his bearings for Durham.

 The height of this cathedral was truly impressive. This was once the main entry point - the doors were massive but looked small compared to the inside of the sanctuary.

 The very front of the church - I am always fascinated by the stained glass in a church and there was so much of it here and so very beautiful.

 View from the back of the cathedral.

 Durham Cathedral's Rose Window is known as one of the most stunning stained glass windows in England.

 Here lies St. Cuthbert. At the other end of the cathedral lies the tomb of the Venerable Bede (AD 672-735) a monk and scholar who chronicled the early history of England.

 The inner courtyard.

 David, our tour guide. I'm pretty sure he's a retired history teacher. 

 Breathtaking. Construction began in AD 1093. The pointed arches in the ceiling were a first for Britain and allowed for the distribution of the weight  into the solid columns.

 They have memorialized the story of the milkmaids and her lost Dun Cow in a statue outside on the cathedral wall.

Hoping to explore more of this city tomorrow and do the river walk. Keeping fingers crossed that the rain lets up that is falling tonight.

Andrew looks pretty serious here. We attended Evensong at the cathedral tonight. It was wonderful - feeling like my soul just calmed listening to the choir's voices in this vast space with incredible acoustics. There is a choir school here and the students participated in the choir.