1,000 of years of History

­­The weekend brought us to the magnificent and historic towns of Durham and York. We departed at 645am from Dalkeith Palace and headed south. Stopping in Newton on the Moor, we picked up our friend and tour guide, Christine. Our first stop was Durham. The city, built essentially to honor St. Cuthbert (or at least his remains) and the cathedral have been standing since for almost 1,000 years. Learning about the cultural influences and the ‘era’ which led to the unique architectural styles and buildings:
Celts 751BC – 42AD.
Romans 42-409
Saxons 410-1065 (Vikings and other invaded during this time as well)
Normans 1066-1215

Durham Cathedral was amazing. I was excited to learn, being the non-art historian that I am, about different era’s gothic architecture. The cathedral, when you stood in the Quire (where the choir would sing), had examples of four distinct types of period architecture. Depicted in four different directions on four windows were:
Early English Gothic, Decorative Gothic and Perpendicular Gothic and finally Tudor.

The city is full of historic and beautiful pieces to observe, take in and reflect on. Having said that, there are great pieces missing from these cathedrals and castles and cities as well—such as statues, art and symbols of early peoples.
This dichotomy—the care and detail placed in the creation and preservation of such magnificent objects vs. the violent cultural destruction of many of those objects during the reformation— demonstrates the collision of long term fundamental beliefs with the passions and extremism of the short term hysteria and emotions.


After a city walk, we got back on the coach and travelled south for an hour, to a city that is 1,000 years older than Durham; the city of York.

Our group of 42’s first priority was to check into the hostel. We disembarked the coach and walked to Mickelgate (gate means street) where our hostel was located. It was my first hostel experience, and fortunately, even after a few bumps and a change in room assignments, it was a decent one.

It is Friday evening, so once we threw down our bags, we are free to play. Tim and I ran into a few of the students and decided to join them for a pint at a dinner by day / night club by night place called Yates. We moved on to join our tour guide for dinner at Café Uno and had—as always with Christine—a delightful conversation about the program, the news and politics! We headed back to the hostel because we made plans to hit the 80’s danceclub, Reflex, with some students. And 80’s it was—cheesy, leisure suits and music ranging from Cindy Lauper to Bon Jovi to Bryan Adams. I think the highlight of the evening was dancing a circular raised dance floor, about 6 feet in diameter, that rotated slowly as you danced. Pretty well aware of the fact that 20 odd Americans drinking and screaming to 80’s music on a rotating dance floor must have been quite a silly sight—every student seem to have 2 camera’s in their hand as the flashes from digital cameras sparked about every 20 seconds. Technology is really preventing the contemporary adage of “What happens on the rotating dance floor at the 80’s bar in York STAYS the rotating dance floor at the 80’s bar in York” of ever really ring true anymore.

The daylight came early. Being so close to the equinox, it is remarkable how such a few short weeks ago, the dark loomed for long hours, but now, the light is peering through the windows at nearly 6am!

A shower and to the lobby to read my book (working on Angel and Demons), and it was a city walls tour of York. We couldn’t have asked for better weather. Christine took us around the 2,000 year old city and walls into the neatest and most picturesque parts of York—the Shambles, the Minster and through some tiny little snickleways.
The combination of Viking, Saxon, Roman and Norman influence on this 2,000 year old city provides a epic sense of uniqueness and history.

As a result, we have foundations of buildings and art that have been the study and influence of much of the Western world’s art and philosophy.

The coach ride home, of course, involved a pseudo-pub quiz of 40 questions. It was a close battle between 5 teams, but the Eboracum Rockets edged out the Jorvik Vikings by 2 points. It was then up The Incredibles to take us home—via DVD.

A super time for all I think. Nice job Tim.