July 16, 2004 - Newcastle-upon-Tyne


     The day began auspiciously.  I woke up a little after five, actually got up, and found a place to work in the bar.  The young man on the desk even volunteered to bring me a pot of coffee.  As I write this, I am looking out the window at the Millenium Bridge and the music arena still under construction.  Contrasted to the insanity of driving through rush-hour traffic when we arrived last night, everything is tranquil and almost completely unpopulated as the sun is just beginning to light things up.  The Milennium Bridge, on the left below, is a foot and bicycle bridge.  When tall ships need to get through, the whole thing rotates so that the cables are horizontal.

Our hotel seen through the Milennium Bridge

River seen from the Milennium Bridge

     Our main goal today was the town of York and especially the Minster cathedral.  (A minster is a particular kind of church, devoted to missionary work in some fashion that I didn't fully understand as is a term that crops up often here; e.g., Westminster.)  The present cathedral is on the site of a Roman fort, where Constantine was declared Emperor of Rome in 306 A.D.  Later, a Norman cathedral was built on the site, followed later by the present cathedral, which is now the largest Gothic cathedral in England.  By the time we had left the cathedral, we were in an overwhelm of information, most of it fading from our minds.  The main thing we were left with was a sense of awe.  Here are a few pictures that may communicate some of it.  Unfortunately, I never found a viewpoint that would show the way the cathedral dominates everything around it.  From up close, I could only capture parts of it, from farther away (like the distant photo below), it would be hidden behind other buildings and trees.  Here's the best I could do close up to the entrance end.  (Sorry about the clumsily spliced tower on the right.)

As we were walking the wall of the town, looking for new angles to see the cathedral (I never found the perfect spot), we came across a group of young children, all with notebooks, sketching the cathedral.  It was great to witness their excitement and enthusiasm.  (None seemed to be complaining they couldn't get the right place from which to view it.)      Reflecting on the whole experience of York Minster, it struck me that this massive, elaborate cathederal was an attempt to connect with that same feeling of divinity that John Muir (whom we visited yesterday) reported feeling in every tree, brook, and animal in Yosemite or anywhere else he traveled in the nature world.  It was an interesting contrast, without detracting from either.

In between Newcastle and York on the train route was the town of Durham, with a much heralded Norman cathedral.  We stopped and did a quick tour of the town (mostly at the cathedral), but things were starting to shut down and, frankly, so were we.  However, here's a quick look at another cathedral.      We caught the train back to Newcastle, talk back to the hotel from the train station--getting some new views of the city--and are settling in for an early evening.  I've now completed this journal and can set about dealing with a number of computer problems, including the failure of my easy internet connection.  If you are reading this, I solved that one, at least.

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