Durham Cathedral

On Friday, Josh took the day off following his midterms so that we could do some exploring together.  It's not often that he can take a break from school and spend some quality time with me, so I cherish those days when we do actually get each others undivided attention.  We decided to go to Durham which is a small town about 15 minutes South of Newcastle by train.  Durham's big tourist attraction is Durham Cathedral.  The cathedral was built in 1093 and is considered one of the most beautiful examples of Norman architecture.  You can see the cathedral from almost every spot in the city.  Even from the train station, it just shoots out of the sky and utterly impossible to miss.

We walked up to the cathedral and if possible, it was even more stunning up close.

We weren't allowed to take pictures inside the cathedral...darn, but we did go up the 325 steps to the top of the cathedral tower.  It was gorgeous up there, but SUPER windy! I thought we might blow off the top of the church if we weren't careful.

View from the top

Nice and Windy...but the only picture of us on the top of the cathedral.

After a while, we headed back down the 325 steps.

Steep steps

After seeing the cathedral, we decided it was time for lunch.  We went to a very interestingly named pub for lunch.  These English people have such a sense of humor!

Josh and his fish and chips

We both enjoyed our lunch at the Fighting Cocks, and after we took a walk down the Wear River to get a better front view of Durham Cathedral.

Durham Cathedral actually reminds me a lot of the Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris, France.  Josh and I visited there in 2008.  What do you think?  See a resemblance?

The walk along the River Wear provided such great shots of Durham Cathedral.  I took about 50 pictures of it.  I just couldn't get enough.

After a fun day in Durham, we headed back to the train station.  Along the way, we saw a really neat bridge that I had to take a picture of.

And, we found someone to take our picture up near the train station.

I encourage anyone that can to go to Durham Cathedral from Newcastle.  It's so close and it doesn't even cost anything to go inside the cathedral.  It's well worth the trip.  It's beautiful.  Josh and I had such a fun day together, enjoying Durham, and enjoying each other.