Bill and Linda's Blog: England 2010

A Great Time with Family in Jolly ole England

This summer we had a great time together exploring northeast England, an area that used to be the medieval kingdom of Northumbria, where Jeremy, Jackie, Nathanael and William live while Jeremy is attending Durham University. The picture below is all of us standing near an old mill on the River Wear below Durham Cathedral which you see in the background.

We'll begin sharing about our time in England with what is most important; our family. During our time in England we had experienced many firsts: holding and spending time with our new grandson William, celebrating Nathanael's third birthday, and seeing where Jeremy goes to school. We also had our personal tour hosts in Jeremy and Jackie who took us to many fascinating places, with Jeremy as our 'chauffeur' and Jackie providing some wonderful meals. Thanks so much to both of them for being excellent hosts!

Below are some pictures of Nathanael (3) and William (4 months).

Nathanael waiting to go to church. Nathanael at the beach by the North Sea

Celebrating Nathanael's third birthday with family and friends.

A couple of pictures of William, or Will, just being a wonderful baby!

Will on the train to Edniburgh, Scotland

A few of dad and the boys.

Now, we'll take a quick tour of the places we visited going in alphabetical order (because that's the order my pictures are in). We'll just give a quick description of each place and show a few pictures. If you're interested in more details just go to Wikepedia and you'll learn more than you probably wanted to know.

Durham City and Cathedral

The city of Durham and its cathedral have a history that goes back over a thousand years. It was a great experience to see the University of Durham where Jeremy attends school, explore the old town, and visit and worship in the cathedral that was built in 1093. We worshipped and received Holy Communion one Sunday and it was a very moving experience to worship where Christians have worshipped for almost 1,000 years. The two pictures of the interior are from the cathedral's website because we were not allowed to take pictures of the interior.

The east end of the cathedral

An old train bridge still in use.

The entrance and courtyard of Durham Castle.

These next two pictures were confiscated from Jeremy and Jackie's blog. If you want to see more great pictures of Durham go to their blog (click on their name in the right column). This one is a picture of one of the streets of Durham we shopped in.

This is the building Jeremy does his studying in. It is only a few buildings down a small street from the cathedral.

Alnwick Castle
Alnwick Castle is the home of the Percy family, Duke and Duchess of Northumberland, for 700 years. The family still lives in the castle and since they were away for the summer we were able to seem many rooms filled with furniture, artwork, books and more dating back centuries. It's amazing that one family could live in a castle for that long!

One of Nathanael's favorite activities was to see how many stones he could place in a cannon before he got caught!

Belsay Castle
Another of the many castles we saw was Belsay. This castle was abandoned by the family in the mid 1800's so that they could build a new mansion a few hundred yards away. The roofs and floors in most of the old castle are now gone leaving fireplaces and doors visible from two or three floors below. the middle of the castle had a stone roof and we were able to go up winding staircases and see many abandoned rooms. between the castle and the 'new' house was a huge garden with many rather exotic plants. We saw many fireplaces that seemed to hang in midair. Around many of them you could see where the floor joists used to be. The 'New' Mansion, now abandoned. The rooms are empty but you can still see the old woodwork, wallpaper, and staircases. Sarah in the garden. Notice how big the leaves are!

Edinburgh, Scotland

Edinburgh is the capital of Scotland and is an exciting city with a Edinburgh Castle, Holyroodhouse Palace, and block after block of old shops, churches, gardens, and much more. A definite must see! We had a great two hour train ride form Durham to Enbinburgh which allowed us to see a lot of countryside and many small towns along the way.

Below is a picture of Edinburgh Castle from the West Princess Street Gardens. We didn't have an opportunity to go in the castle but as you can tell it is impressive. The next picture is of some of the guns that protected the approach to the castle. The guns point in the general direction of the Royal Mile that ends at the palace.

This next two pictures show a pretty typical view of what the Royal Mile looks like. It's filled with many shops, restaurants and 'closes' or alleys that led to courts with entrances to old apartment buildings. On one side street we took a quick trip off the Royal Mile to eat and see the restaurant where J. K. Rowlings wrote the first book of the Harry Potter series.

Of course we did see a few men playing the bagpipes which lent a real 'Scottish' atmosphere to all that was happening on the Royal Mile.

This is one of the many courtyards at the end of a 'close.' Most of these were only about a few dozen yards off the Royal Mile.

The official church of the Queen while she is in Scotland is located on the Royal Mile a short distance from the castle. Here you see her official seal on her pew.

At the end of the Royal Mile is Holyroodhouse Palace, the official residence of the Queen when she is in Scotland. This palace dates back to the 15th century and has been the official residence of the Scottish kings and queens ever since. This palace contains the historic chambers of Mary, Queen of Scots. It was 'interesting' to stand in the very room where her secretary Rizzo was murdered by her jealous husband, Lord Darnley.