Durham’s Cathedral, Castle and village
Summary
The famous travel writer Bill Bryson, after seeing half the world, was gobsmacked when he saw Durham and wondered why no one had told him about it before. So much so that he decided to become Chancellor of Durham University and says, “If you have never been to Durham before, go there at once. Take my car, it’s wonderful.” Easy to see why – the setting with the magnificent Durham Cathedral and Durham Castle perched high on the tight meander of the River Wear is just stunning and is complemented by the small narrow streets that branch off all through the nearby town
An easy day trip from Newcastle (see here for tips on Newcastle – A day in Newcastle), one of the key stops on the main east coast line that runs through the UK, and a must if in this part of the world
Top tip – be sure to walk around the river right by the waterfront. The best bit is from Framwellgate Bridge to Prebends Bridge, but you can also walk all the Elvet Bridge
highlights
#1 The views over the immense nearly 1000 years old Durham Cathedral. A bastion for Christianity in the medieval period and impressive in its scale and setting even today
#2 The walk along the tight loop of the River Wear bend, and allowing you to be quickly transported from the winding town streets to being surrounded by trees and nature
#3 The pretty cobbled Durham streets all branching away from the Cathedral and Castle. A superb Old Town feel
#4 Durham Castle and the lucky students that get to call it home for a year
Experiences nearby
The below map shows experiences nearby with a colour that reflect the Overall Score of those experiences
Other pretty Old Towns
Score Detail
Background - how many times have you asked someone what a travel experience was like and the response was "amazing" or "awesome"? That response is nice to know, but it makes it hard to differentiate that experience compared to others. That is exactly what these scores are trying to do - differentiate the experience by giving a score out of 10 based on 6 categories and then giving an overall experience score
This overall experience score is calculated by: take the highest of the "Culture" or "Nature" score (1-10) + "Fun factor" (1-10) + "Avoiding the crowds" (1-10) + highest of the "Unique" or "World Famous score" (1-10). Then convert into a score out of 100
Extra detail - the logic being that I find all of the 6 individual scores important, but I don't want to mark an experience down just because it doesn't cover both "Culture" and "Nature", or because it isn't both "World Famous" and "Unique". Take the examples of Safari in The Serengeti and walking through Rome - they both appeal at opposite ends of the nature / culture spectrum, and you can have a fantastic time without needing to appeal to both sides. So, their overall scores aren't penalized for their lack of one or the other, and I've done the same for "World Famous" vs "Unique". But . . . I do think that the "Fun factor" of an experience is important, irrelevant of other factors, and so is "Avoiding the Crowds" (or where there are crowds that add to the experience). So, both of these scores are standalone