Durham

We were in Durham yesterday. First we met the county executive (I'm not sure if that's really his title, but that's the American equivalent of what he does, I think. Tim would know). He was nice. Tim asked him a lot of questions, some of which were a little provocative. He gave us all beautiful books about County Durham and really nice pens. I was really tired, so I don't have too much to say about this part of the day.
We went to a Rotary meeting for lunch, but we had to eat and run.
After lunch we met with the mayor of Durham. Mayors in England (for the most part) are purely ceremonial; they are members of the council, but don't make any sort of official decisions on their own as mayor. The mayor is the city's "first citizen" and takes the pre-eminent position at social functions. We toured town hall, with it's beautiful great hall and council chambers, and we took turns standing on the porch that overlooks the city square. I waved like the Queen but no one waved back :\ The ceiling in the great hall had a beautiful hammerbeam roof with angels on it, one of which can be seen at the left.
Next up was something I've been waiting for for months: the tour of Durham Cathedral. Durham isn't a very big city, especially compared with the nearby Newcastle area. But Durham Cathedral is the second-most important cathedral in the Anglican (Episcopalian) Church, second only to Canterbury. It's the resting place of the remains of three saints, and was built in between 1093 and 1133. Forty years is an amazingly short amount of time to put up a cathedral; most take a century or more to complete.
The door of the cathedral has a large door-knocker on it with the face of a lion. In centuries past, people accused of a crime could seek sanctuary at the cathedral and therefore avoid arrest. All they had to do was get to the door-knocker before the mob got to them. They were allowed to stay at the cathedral for 37 days and then either agree to stand trial or go into exile. If they chose exile, they were escorted to Hartlepool and put on the next ship going out, and they were dropped off at the next port-of-call that wasn't in England.
It's unfortunate that we weren't able to take pictures inside the cathedral, because it truly is an architectual marvel. Over the course of its construction, building techniques evolved and allowed for a safer structure. It wasn't as ornate as York Minster, but that only served to make it more approachable. To be honest, I don't have a top-of-the-line camera, and any pictures I would have taken wouldn't have done the place justice anyway. After all that anticipation, it didn't disappoint.
After the cathedral we took some time and walked around the shops in Durham. For being a college town and tourist destination, they still roll up the sidewalks at about 5:30 on weeknights. We only really had time to visit the chocolate shop, but then again that's the only shop that really mattered anyway ;)
At the dinner Rotary club meeting, we played games, which was a nice change of pace. We had to guess the objects that were in small bags; we couldn't see them, only feel them. After dinner, we worked in groups of four to see who could build the tallest standing structure out of newspaper and tape. My team's didn't stand up, but Tim's team won.
TTYL
Amy