Thursday 12^th June       LOCKTON – BISHOP AUCKLAND - DURHAM – NEWCASTLE – BLYTH

Another big travel day! We were up nice and early in our lovely Lockton house. Cait and Danny called (both sick with the winter lurgy) so we chatted to them, then finished packing and set off. As it only takes a few hours to drive to Newcastle and district, we’d decided to go via Durham, which we both wanted to see. Lex had read that Bishop Auckland was a lovely city, so we set that for a morning tea stop. Well! One of the perils of the navigator is that it will take you to a random spot in a town or city, unless you program very specific instructions. We got to Bishop Auckland, then followed the signs to the city centre, found a car park at Northgate, parked and went out. The streets were…..depressed looking. We kept walking but it got no better. Boarded up shops, grubby footpaths, rows of empty shops. The vape shops were doing fine, however. Vaping is VERY big in the UK. Anyway, we finally saw a bakery/coffee shop, and stopped there, then got back to our car nice and quickly. Driving away, a few streets over, we did see some lovely looking old buildings and what looked like the gateway to perhaps a Bishop’s palace? We’ll never know!

                                      Glimpse of an impressive looking gateway in Bishop Auckland

Anyway, we got to the Durham park and ride at Belmont, and easily caught the bus into the city. Medieval Durham is just lovely – it’s sort of all contained by a loop in the river. We looked at the castle, but there were no tours available until 2.30, so we went into the University Library building there. We were lucky enough to go straight into a free tour of their library dating back to the 1660s, all donated by the Bishop of the day. It was incredible; the library is very little altered from the 17^th century – the shelving and paintings all date from that time. Also, they have a first edition folio of Shakespeare’s on display. It was stolen in the 1990s, but turned up in the USA a decade later. Unfortunately, to try and stop it being identified, the thieves tore off the cover (vandals) but a court case proved it was the Durham copy, and it is now back (and held under much tighter security, one hopes.) We enjoyed our half hour timeslot, and chatting to the leader of the group. From there, we also enjoyed a look at the rest of the displays in the library, including archaeological finds from the area.

                                                                River Wear

                                            Why are cathedrals and castles always on a hill?!

                                                              University Library building

                                                         Shakespeare folio - stolen, now returned

                                                             The library

                                                The paintings were all 17th century
After that, we went into the cathedral. Again, I’m running out of superlatives, but this was another amazing building. It was very different from a lot of others we’ve been into – it’s quite dark, and has very little decoration on the walls. The different markings on the columns are really effective. It holds the tombs of two great Anglo Saxons – Saint Cuthbert, and The Venerable Bede. In 2014, we visited Lindisfarne, where Cuthbert was originally buried, so it was good to see where he ended up. (They had to move him due to constant Viking attacks.) Amazingly, Cuthbert’s body is still buried in the cathedral – during the reformation, Henry VIII’s men usually completely destroyed any shrine and the bodies of any saints, but apparently when they opened his tomb, they found his body ‘uncorrupted’ so quickly buried him again. (They destroyed his shrine and stole all the treasure, of course. There are limits.) Bede was one of the great writers and historians and theologians of Anglo Saxon times, so it was wonderful to see his tomb there as well.

                                                         Tomb of the Venerable Bede

  

                       Tomb of St Cuthbert                                           The nave

                                                                 Durham Cathedral

After a long wander around the cathedral, we had a very late (2.30) soup lunch in the café there. Then we walked back to the bus stop, where a bus was fortunately waiting, back to the park and ride, and set course for Blyth, north of Newcastle, our next accommodation. Unfortunately this trip didn’t go smoothly, due to an accident on the A1, and we ended up going through Newcastle to avoid it. (You never see Vera getting stuck in traffic!) Anyway, we reached the Morrison’s at Blyth at 5, got our groceries for the next few days, then moved into our little flat.

It’s right on the beachfront in a purpose built set of units, has two bedrooms and is on the first floor. The weather had been very kind to us today, and I was thinking longingly of a walk on the beach, but that wasn’t going to happen – it was almost full tide, the wind was blowing a hooley (dangerous winds forecast here over the next 24 hours) so the waves were crashing, and it was COLD! We did go for a walk on the footpath next to the beach; best described as invigorating. I can report that my new puffy jacket is both warm and windproof, however!

                                                       Our block of flats

                                                  Beach at Blyth

                                                          Nice view from our windows

We’ve since had tea, done a load of washing, inventively hung it up to hopefully dry, and now for sleep. It’s ten to ten and still quite light. Tomorrow we can explore the Newcastle region.