If you are at the sea you MUSt have fish and chips. It's sorta a thing.

Today was an epic day of adventures!!
  One of the many highlights today was visitng Durham Cathedral (http://www.durhamcathedral.co.uk/ ) . This was one of the first truly 'touristy' things we have done. And this experience did NOT let us down! Without having Alan and Jean the experience would not have been complete. They are like our own personal tour guides/history books!! :) :)

Todays history lesson: In 875, the monks of Lindisfarne fled the island because of Viking raiders taking with them their most precious treasures, including St. Cuthbert's miraculously preserved body and the illuminated Lindisfarne Gospels.They then wandered norther England looking for a proper place to lay St Cuthberts body. The story goes that in 995, the Lindisfarne monks put down the casket and when they went to lift it to move it again it was impossible to move. So they literally just built the cathedral around him!

The building of Durham Cathedral was started in 1093 and virtually completed in 40 years, which when you consider the craftsmanship and lack of JCBs and other heavy lifting equipment at the time is a stunning achievement . It is the only cathedral in England to still have intact almost all of its Norman craftsmanship, and it also still has virtually the same shape and size as its original design which is also quite unusual for cathedrals because of the turbulent history of the church over the years.
Walking through the Cathedral I really felt the power of the Catholic Church. To build something of this magnitude in only 40 years is truly an amazing feat. The huge pillars with designs perfectly carved into them, the huge yet intricate stained glass windows, the amazing tombs which filled the main sanctuary and just the sheer size of it all really blew my mind. But the Cathedral also really made me think of the Catholic Church itself. They had so much power, over so many people, and owned so much of the medivals worlds riches while the majoirty of the population lived in absolute squalor. It actually kinda annoyed me. I had an AMAZING time, sooo glad I went, but it really can serve as a reminder to what too much power can do....okay on with a description of the place and some happier thoughts!
The Sanctuary knocker: This is really cool, again my own photo to come! It was a huge thing, located on the front door of the Cathedral. The actual one currently on the front door was a replica but the real knocker from the 12th century is held in the treasury, in perfect condition. It is a lion-type beast which allows criminal offenders, no matter the offense, to knock on it and stay in the Cathedral for 37 days. They were support out their affairs in this time and then leave to 'face the music'. They had to take the first trial or leave by the nearest port.

Another amazing part of the Cathedral (which really did seem to go on forever) was the cloisters.

This is where the monks lived (the cloister garth).This is an area of four covered walkways, forming a square, with a garden in the center. While we were there the sky was perfectly blue and the grass soo green (due to the fact that it literally rains at least once every 10 minutes here) so we got some truly amazing photos. Off the cloisters was the monks dormitory. It dates back to the fourteenth century and has an amazing ceiling of wooden oak beams (Dad, you will LOVE this!) Now this is a working library for the University in Durham, so all the books were catelogued and ready to sign out!!The monks living quarters reading chambers were off this area. Also, for all you Harry Potter addicts part of the Potter films were done here!! This website shows the cloisters in the film.
http://www.hp-lexicon.org/about/films/locations/durham.htm
The 1998 film Elizabeth was also filmed here, Alan was there during the filming and said watching all the actors running around dressed as monks was pretty cool!

The treasury in the Cathedral was awesome. It holds Cuthberts coffin from AD 698 (the very coffin that was laid down and was impossible to pick-up, why the Cathedral was built there), many acient books and manuscripts (really cool, you can see the pencil lines that the monks drew in to keep all of their intricate writing all lined perfectly, in completely perfect condition!!). One of my favorite parts in the treasury were the cloaks or robes.  After over 500 years they were in amazing conidition! My favorite had an embroidered picture of David holding the head of Goliath. A little creepy but so amazing that it is in such great condition after all these years!

Words truly can not describe how huge and impressive this experience was! There were so many seperate parts to this Cathedral, the planning of it alone would have taken such a huge amount of time and effort even with modern day technology!



After touring the Cathedral we walked around Durham and got what Alan calls the 'classic' view and of course MANY photos of the Cathedral from the other side of the river. We had lunch at Greggs (my new favorite place for delicious food at rock-bottom prices) and then we drove (I fell asleep, mouth open, super classy I know) to where my Nanny was born and raised. We saw the church were she was married, her school house and the grave site for my great-gran Atherton. It was pretty cool to see this history from my Dads side of the family, I really never thought I would!

We then drove to the sea, such a beautiful drive! I maaaaay have nodded off for a few minutes (I blame the fresh air) and when I woke up we were in Seaton Carew, aparantly it isn't the nicest seaside village but Lizz and I liked it! The tide was completely out so we walked down the beach, gathering shells and rocks like 6 year olds and taking tons of pictures. There was a bit of a wind so it was a little cold but the waves were fantastic! Then Alan and Jean took us for fish and chips...this was EPIC! We got them at a little take-out place and ate it in the car. Eating in the car was completely necessary as  the birds seems to see our take-away on the way out and spread the word to all the flying beasts. They surronded us, waiting for us to get out of the car and share the wealth. That did not happen. We are currently eating the left-overs, at 11pm, and they are just as good. The taste can not be described, okay they can...perfection. I may weigh 300 pounds before we leave on Monday!!

All in all it was a perfect day. Pictures. Family. Food. Memories.