Durham, Washington, and York

Durham Cathedral
Originally uploaded by Suzie Rozie.

Today was a thrill for me because we stopped in Durham, just south of Washington (where we're staying tonight), to see the cathedral at Durham, and we were there in time to participate in a communion service there. Yesterday, we went to a communion service at the cathedral in York, commemorating the ascension. Wow! What a pair of days.

Today was the biggest thrill for me, though, because I am a fan of N. T. Wright - the Bishop of Durham. Wright isn't the dean of the cathedral, but surely he has been there and has a connection with those folks who minister there. He writes and publishes prolifically, and I enjoy his work.

To add to the joy of visiting the cathedral and joining a small group for communion, someone was playing the magnificent pipe organ (we couldn't find the console) while we were there. I suspect it might have been a student - or a couple of students - because there's a college there. We were also privileged to hear something of a flute - piano concert being given in one of the halls in a nearby building, so we were blessed with music today, too. How very special all was.

We've had a couple days of little or no rain, too! Rain here in Britain is just a fact of life - a dramatic contrast from southern California. We have been very fortunate that most of our driving has been in dry and sunny weather. It's cool, but we have sufficient clothing to adjust as it warms and cools throughout the day.

We're staying in Washington (the original one, according to a sign posted at the entry to the city), the home of George Washington's ancestors. We took a little drive out there - not too far from our hotel, but made much longer by our going around in circles as we missed the correct exits from the many roundabouts - just to take some pictures. I've posted those, along with all the pictures from today (I'm up to date) on Flickr.

Tomorrow, we head for Aberfeldy, Scotland, for a week. Actually, we'll be there only six nights because we are scheduled to be in Devon (in the south of England) immediately after, so we're leaving a day early and spending a night in north Chester to get there on time. To get to Aberfeldy, we're going to take the A1 route around the northeastern coast, then the loop south of Edinburgh, instead of a more direct route. The trip is 5 or 6 hours, so we'll probably not do too much stopping; but we can enjoy the scenery from the road. There's a lot to see in the area between here and there, but 33 days really isn't sufficient time to see everything we would like to see. Three months would be more like it! I believe we will find Aberfeldy less populated than York, and even less populated than Durham.

In York, we were really lucky to realize there was a place near our hotel where we could park and catch a bus into York - an official Park and Ride. The bus fare was cheap at 2 pounds for a round trip for each of us. We found the same in Durham (after York, we knew what to look for), and the fare was only 1 pound 70 for each of us, round trip! Durham is much smaller than York, but something I read indicated that Durham originated the Park and Ride system to keep the traffic from the city. London is just now following suite this year. If you fail to use the Park and Ride in Durham, you pay a fee when you leave the town (but I don't know where). In London, the fee is quite high. I'm sure it's going to make a tremendous difference in London.

We ate at Toby's tonight - a little buffet restaurant in the same complex as the Holiday Inn where we're staying, and we had our first Yorkshire pudding. What a strange thing that is - it looks like a big puffy fritter or something. It was good! I used it as bread to shovel the food on my fork - lots of good, yummy, vegetables!

The knitting is progressing - I'm about finished with my third hat - it's green, and I used a basket-weave kind of pattern - I don't know what the name of this would be, and I'm sure there is one, but it's K2, P2 for four rows, then P2, K2 for four. It makes a nice texture. This is my fourth piece - two hats, one head warmer, and this one. I expect to get a couple more made next week - so relaxing to sit and knit!

I have the AOL access numbers for the UK, so maybe we'll be able to get on line via dial up next week - we'll see. But then again, maybe not.

Here at this Holiday Inn, we have broadband in our room, for 10 pounds for 24 hours. That's a little steep, but worth it considering we'll not have service for a week. While in York, we had broadband in the restaurant, bar, and game room for free, but none in our room. In the Holiday Inn south of Chester, they wanted 15 pounds for 24 hours - that's $30 and we thought it was way too much, especially since the room itself was just at about $100 a night. In Southport, we had free broadband in our room. It seems that the non-national chains tend to offer better services. It's that way in the U.S., too. The highest price I've ever paid in the U.S. was at a Sheraton a couple years ago - I think it was like $12 for 24 hours. Usually, if we have to pay, we pay about $6 for 24 hours. At the same Sheraton (this was OKC), we paid $12 a night for parking, too. The higher the price of the hotel, the fewer services and the more expensive the services are. Go figure!

We're having a wonderful, wonderful time!