Sunday, June 22, 2008

Cathedral, Castle, Abbey - A typical day

We stayed at one of the nicer B&B's in Durham with beautiful views out the back.

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But one of the things that we can't get used to is how late it stays light here.  The next picture was taken about 10:30 at night.

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The next morning we went into Durham to see the Cathedral because the people at breakfast said it was really great and we shouldn't miss it.  We must be getting jaded (I think this is the ninth one we've seen on this trip) so we really weren't that impressed, but I had to take at least one picture because of the steep hill we had to climb to get to it.

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After that it was off to Jedburgh in Scotland.  Jedburgh is a cute little town, with something you don't see in the States, a gramophone company!  

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The main thing we wanted to see was Floors Castle.  It's not really a castle, but more of a manor house.  If you saw the movie Greystoke, The Legend of Tarzan, it was filmed here.  It's very impressive from the outside.

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But even more impressive to me were the grounds on which the castle is situated.

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Unfortunately, we couldn't take any pictures inside the castle.  It has an American connection in that the 7th Duke of Roxbourghe married an American woman who had a lot of money and not only added onto the palace, but also bought a lot of Louis XVI furniture which is still in the house.

When we got back to Jedburgh, we still have some daylight left, so we quickly toured the Jedburgh Abbey.  The Abbey is in ruins, but there were several interesting exhibits about what life was like as a monk.  What got to me is that they got up at 2:30 AM, and went to bed at 6:30 PM.  Not the life for me!

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As you can see, it's not exactly in the best of shape.  But then who needs a roof or walls?DSC01652

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Then it was back to the B&B to get ready for another day of adventure.  

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