7:32 PM

Durham To Cambridge

Posted by Melody

I got up at 7am this morning and put all my stuff near the door before I went down to breakfast. I had a poached egg and full breakfast today. This is the first time that I have ever had a poached egg. Basically, it is like a fried egg, but boiled in water instead of fried in oil/grease. I found that the outside tasted a little watery, which was sort of gross, but that was not anything that salt could not fix. Haha!

We jump on the bus at 8:15am and head off toward Durham. We pick up Dr. Hogg on the way. We arrive at Durham and walk to the cathedral. Dr. Hogg gives us a brief informational session about the cathedral, palace green, and castle. We walk in and meet our tour guide. He takes us back outside and tells us some interesting things about the green and castle. He said that the castle was known as a motte (mound) and bailey (surrounding fields) castle, and was the only one that he knew of that had a cathedral in the backyard. Haha!

He explains the knocker on the door of the cathedral as we were heading back in. It is called a sanctuary knocker. If someone was accused of a crime, they could use the knocker to ask for sanctuary. They were allowed to stay in the church under sanctuary for 27 days. If proved to be guilty of the crime, the remaining 3 days were left for the person to flee.

We go inside and the guide points out different architecture, then some leftover painted designs that was protected when the cathedral was whitewashed. We then walk around to see the cathedral clock and old British flags in a chapel. We loop around to St. Cuthbert's shrine in the cathedral. We walk through and then head off to the lady chapel. I think my favorite lady chapel was that in Ely Cathedral. It was so cold in there because they are doing work on the windows, or something, along the back wall. The west door of the cathedral was blocked when the lady chapel was built. On our way out, at the end of the tour, the guide showed us the tomb of St. Bede. Above the tomb on the wall was a beautiful prayer in gold lettering, one that St. Bede had once said...

“Christ is the morning star, who when the night
Of this world is past brings to his saints
The promise of the light of life & opens everlasting day”


We had some free time, so I went to the cafe there at the cathedral to warm up with some hot chocolate. The English really know how to fix the best hot chocolate! It comes in a tall, glass mug with whipped cream and a Cadbury chocolate flake. Here goes the saying again...it's like a hot chocolate in America, but in the way our American hot chocolate never knew it could be. Haha!

I left and went to go find a post office to mail off the postcards I got for my parents and Ashley, then went back to the bus with a couple of minutes to spare. Dr. Hogg came back to the bus and said goodbye to us before we left. Lady Stephenson had put me in charge of expressing thanks to Dr. Hogg for his time with us. I thanked him, gave him the card and Lee University pen, and we applauded him on his way out. I really did like Dr. Hogg a whole lot. He was so full of knowledge about various subjects, and was willing to share it at a moment's notice. He and I even held a conversation about music theory and history (Ack! The classes I had the most difficulty in!), and I was surprised to find out that he knew a LOT about it. Dare I even say that he knew more than me, the music major! Haha!

We set off on our 4 hour journey from Durham to Cambridge. I really did not want to come back to Cambridge. I wish I had more time in the Lakes District. That has to be the most gorgeous place I have ever seen in my entire life. When we got back, I put my stuff up, then hopped on my bike and headed off to The Cow. I got a chicken hamburger, then ordered a double fudge chocolate cake and coffee. So good! It was just what I needed. I went to the library and studied there for a while before coming back to the hotel for the night.

New word of the day: cuddy = small horse/pony


Cheerio poppets!

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