My “Day” in Durham, England

As the weather in France today has taken a turn for the worse (I had several days of 70 degree weather and lots of sun, and now I am back to cold, rain, and clouds…), I thought it would be the perfect day to write about my trip to Durham, England. My last post discussed my trip to Edinburgh, but I neglected to say why I was there in the first place – I had to go there so I could get to my conference in Durham. The prices and routes for getting anywhere in Europe are still a mystery to me, and since I could easily rant about this for several blog posts, I will save my thoughts for such an occasion. The important thing to know is that Durham was my final destination for another academic conference.

This conference was a bit different than the one I attended in Luxembourg because the subject was “Material Religion” (the material side of religion, including objects used in rituals, representations of religious subjects, the body’s role in rituals, etc.), and my audience included sociologists, anthropologists, art historians, theologians, geographers…I am sure some other disciplines too! To my knowledge, I was the only archaeologist attending, but since I used many modern theories and approaches to understand my own material better, I actually felt quite at home here. I also was fortunate enough to present on the first day, and therefore, had little time to get nervous! I had positive feedback on my presentation, and one colleague told me later it was one of the most creative papers he’s ever seen and that I seemed right at home speaking in front of others (thank you, high school theatre and other various forms of public speaking I endured throughout my pre-college education)! Overall, it was an interesting conference, and I enjoyed listening to papers on different or new topics, and getting to know people from other disciplines.

Thanks S. Schaefer for the photo!

Backtracking a bit, I arrived in Durham Monday afternoon via the train from Edinburgh. The conference lasted from Tuesday to Thursday and went nearly from sun-up to sun-down. Needless to say, I did not have much time to see anything in the city during the conference. I anticipated this and planned Friday as my extra day for sightseeing. I did see one awesome sight during the conference – this room looked quite similar to the Great Hall from the Harry Potter movies! We dined in it and even made sure I was on the Gryffindor side, just to be safe! Apparently other scenes from the films were shot throughout the castle.

The weather was beautiful during the conference, but rained/misted on Friday of course. I spent the day just sort of strolling about; walking was particularly nice after sitting in a conference for three days. 

This is a view of the River Wear from one of the many bridges in Durham. The river actually loops around the highest hill in the area almost creating a peninsula.

It actually looked a bit more like Fall, but the green is slowly coming back. Below is another one of the bridges in Durham, though much lower than the one from the photo above. The pyramid-looking thing in front of it had a niche on the other side; maybe it was for light/a small fire? 

I did manage to visit the Durham Cathedral, which has been voted Britain’s favorite building. The giant, awesome door-knocker is on one of the doors to the Cathedral. If someone sought sanctuary for a crime or any reason, they could knock on this door and were allowed to stay in the protection of the church for about a month. It’s really large and it has interesting columns inside which are all carved with unique geometric designs (no photos inside, sorry!). In the monk’s living area, there was also an impressive library with books in beautiful bookcases that lined the wall and a lovely collection of Anglo-Saxon carved stone art and crosses. It is possible to visit the tower of the cathedral, but I thought paying 5£ to walk up five flights of stairs was a bit much considering the exchange rate.

I was a bit disappointed that the Durham Castle was closed for a private event the day I wanted to see the rest of it. At least I had enough sense to snoop around a bit the night of the HP dinner! I took a few photos near the entrance anyway.

But the best thing I saw in Durham, were signs of life! Flowers! Yes, flowers. I skipped most of this year’s crappy Midwest winter, but it does not stop me from being excited to see these gems! Spring is just around the corner, friends! I promise you! 

Another view of the cathedral. 

The other side of the River Wear which surrounds the hill.