I said goodbye to York this morning and took the train to Scotland, arriving in Glasgow late in the evening after taking a couple of stops along the way in Durham and Newcastle.
Durham is a small town about forty five minutes north of York, which is known for its cathedral, the best example of Romanesque construction in Europe. It's almost a thousand years old, having been constructed before the flying buttresses of Gothic cathedrals were invented. It was made to be the final resting place of St Cuthbert (one of the biggest medieval saints of Northern England), who was originally buried at Lindisfarne but was moved at the end of the first millenium and finally arrived in Durham in 995 CE. The cathedral was completed in 1133 and also houses the remains of the Venerable Bede, England's first historian and the first historian to use the AD dating system (I was a bit more excited about this guy). It was a bit darker inside than other cathedrals I've seen, partly because it's Romanesque and partly because the stone is fairly dark, a medium brown. Photography was not allowed inside the cathedral, so the following image was found online (the interior is really cool, otherwise I wouldn't have gone to this effort).
Really neat columns, the round ones were all decorated with big geometric patterns
We were allowed to take pictures of the exterior, though:
The tower, from the monks' area
I wandered around for a bit, then went down to the River Wear and walked along it for a bit. I was worried about missing my train so I headed back up and then I sat at the station for a bit longer than I intended. I did the same thing in Newcastle, I think I was a bit burnt out from all the wandering I've been doing recently.
Newcastle was a nice city, actually. I only spent a little time looking at it, but the streets were pretty nice and there was a big set of food tents by a giant monument to someone whose important was obscured by someone selling plants. I tried a kangaroo burger! It tasted like a burger, not really much different from anything else between two buns, but the caramelized onions were excellent.
Nice square in Newcastle
I finally arrived in Glasgow at about nine thirty and got to my lodgings for the night at ten. Hopefully I'll never stay in a place quite so sketch again. It was definitely a living room that they had set up as a bedroom. I did not sleep well because I could not get that fact out of my head.
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