A beautiful morning on the island! After another winderful breakfast prepared by our host Jaime. Lorene Mitchell, the priest from Canada and I took a long walk after breakfast and talked about Celtic Spirituality which is the focus of his sabbatical. It was beautiful out there! Went to take one last picture of St. Cuthbert's retreat island:
I can't believe how much I'm already missing the morning and evening quiet in the Holy Isle -- I think my soul has been longing for it.
We were picked up by our cab 1/2 hour earlier than we expected -- we had a very lovely ride down to Durham. He is the man who started Carry Lite the baggage transfer company and now has expanded to private cab. Perfect! He told us how he started the company and how it has grown.
We arrived a little after noon and Anne at Castle View B and B greeted us warmly even though we were over an hour early for our early check in! She showed us to room 4 -- the only guest room with a view of the castle and the cathedral! Anne told us that while the train station that we will be going out of us quite near we wouldn't want to walk -- too many hills with luggage (indeed all of Durham appears to be that way!). She arranged for a cab to take us there tomorrow morning.
I didn't realize (or maybe I did when I booked this last November) how close we were to the cathedral and castle!
We freshened up a bit and headed out. There is a 12th century church right next to the B and B:
We crossed the bridge and headed toward the cathedral and castle. We were earlier than we expected and knew we'd be meeting Matt at around 3 so we headed in down there.
The walk from the B and B to the Cathedral was short but interesting -- and up and down hills!
We made it over to the cathedral -- once again I fell in love with a door knocker:
While we couldn't take pictures inside the cathedral I can tell you that we first went to the tomb of St. Cuthbert then St. Bede. I spent a good bit of time at St. Cuthbert's tomb praying.
We grabbed a quick bite to eat downstairs in the cathedral cafe and the headed back outside to walk through the Cloister:
We then went out front to wait for Matt Adamson before touring more of the Cathedral.
In the picture below, which was taken from the bridge at the cathedral, you can see a church with a flag. The white building next to it is where we stayed-- the window you see facing the church was our window.
It was great to welcome Matt to Durham! We went back in and toured the Cathedral. It reminded me of the parts of the Abbey on the Holy Isle that I so adore!
We went over to the castle and got on the last tour of the day. The castle was converted into a University centuries ago. A student was our guide. As with the cathedral we were not allowed to take pictures inside, only outside:
It was very interesting walking the halls of the castle. The gallery leading to the chapel had a Norman doorway completely intact because it was plastered over and sealed off centuries ago. Same with an old Norman chapel almost directly underneath the chapel that has been used for hundreds of years.
We were able to go back to the cathedral and go to Evensong. Beautiful!
We took Matt to dinner and caught up with this amazing young man! He is working on his PhD -- we loved catching up with him, and he was so kind to come on the train, as he is studying over 45 minutes away, to see us!
The night ended too soon -- we sent Matt back to his school and headed back to the B and B.
What an amazing end to our walk! The pieces keep falling into place!
Total steps walked today: 14,145 -- 5.44 miles.
