durham

well, dur, of course it's durham... mind, i've never been here despite being born and bred in northumberland - somehow we've always been going past or around it to somewhere else. so my mother decided we should have a little weekend away :-)

spent the morning in the small-but-perfectly-formed durham light infantry museum, on the edge of town - make sure you spend time in the medals room here, fascinating (& sobering) stories.

then we headed back across town in the afternoon for a rather bracing walk to the cathedral. slightly spoiled by the fact the cathedral would only let us 20 yards inside because it was holding what some jobsworth kept referring to as a wedding - in fact it was a blessing, with about 30 guests, which would've fitted entirely into the choir area without need for *the entire cathedral* to be closed off to visitors for almost an hour before it even started (with no sign outside telling you this, only a jobsworth inside with a rope barrier). unimpressed - there were several things we had wanted to look at and weren't allowed to; more annoying still (even for an atheist) was that a group of women who were sat quietly in the pews taking time for contemplation and prayer were officiously moved out. very poor indeed.

hearts were soothed by a cuppa, a slab of cake and a wander round the university's botanic garden on the other edge of town - not big and not flash, but nicely put together and a pleasant stroll at the end of the day.