Tuesday, July 9, 2002
Location: Starbucks, The Shambles, York
Weather: Rain

Starbucks' expanding domination of the world seems to have run into absolutely no resistance in the UK. The British, stunned by the concept of a store selling really good coffee and providing comfy counches with no limit to how long you can stay, have apparently given up on tea and joined the queue for decaf grande frappucinos with all the enthusiasm of new missionaries. It's a concept especially powerful in university towns like York, where on a rainy day like today the store is crowded with bright young things chattering gaily over cups, newspapers, and glossy catalogues.

I first visited York for my ex-girlfriend Anne Dutton's wedding, seven years ago. I came back a couple of years later and stayed with Victoria Thompson on my way south to France from Scotland. As Vicky was working part time as a York city tour guide, I picked up a fair grasp of the city, so my day today is basically tourism-free. After the important tasks -- booking a train ticket to London for tomorrow, paying some bills on the net -- I'm having a relaxing afternoon writing postcards, catching up on the diary, and listening to mp3's on my Jukebox.

Catching up on the diary properly -- filling in all the details from the weekend, for example -- is going to be hard, but I'll give it a crack.

Saturday, Bruce, Brian, Stephanie and I checked out of the Thistle Hotel and took a cab across town to a (misnamed) Thrifty Car Rental. After a lengthy wait we got a very fancy new 4-door Volvo, into which we crammed our considerable luggage and our various sizes of frames, and settled in for a long drive.

We stopped for lunch in a small town's hotel, where I harrassed the young restaurant's only waitress with unreasonable requests for clotted cream with my scone and a real cappucino, and Bruce downed four small, expensive bottles of Coke in quick succession (with the predictable result in terms of afternoon stops).

Back on the road, we crossed over the causeway to the Holy Island. it's flooded in high tide, but the tide had peaked earlier in the day and was on the way out, so there wan't any issue. The Holy Island is basically small and flat, but for a little castle on a raised mount at the southeast corner. The Lindisfarne Priory (and tourist-oriented village) is at the southwest end, and we spent a couple of hours going through the ruins and looking around the little museum.

When we continued on, it was to complete our drive to Durham, where Steph had booked us into a bed & breakfast. We had a little map and pretty clear directions, but the area turned out to be quite confusing (basically two street names for opposite sides of the same street) and we drove past it twice before finally parking and finding it on foot. It turned out to be a lovely place with a comfortable room on the ground floor with two twin beds for Brian and me. Before dinner we shared some of Steve Billow's abandoned Famous Grouse in the B&B's back yard, looking out towards the cathedral and down towards a cricket game in progress.

At dinner time we wandered downtown to find a restaurant. The downtown area was full of young Durhamians in Saturday night finery (i.e., the girls as skimpy as the chilly weather would allow, boys wearing jackets to put around girls) and a few policemen were casually keeping a weather eye on the crowds. Stephanie spied a nearly-concealed restaurant sign and we followed doubtfully down an alley and down some steps, where we found a surprisingly large and surprisingly good Italian restaurant.

Sunday morning dawned without the forecasted rain. Indeed, the sun came out later in the morning and we had a beautiful day. We started it off with our first massive English B&B breakfast. Bruce & Steph set out to catch Matins at the cathedral. Brian and I, not so single-mindedly committed to devoting the day to the church, wandered downtown again where we found the Durham Summer Festival in full swing. We watched a history market being set up in the Market Place--a leather worker, scrivener, an apothecary, and a very uninterested-looking donkey in an impromptu stall set up against the wall of the Church of St. Nicholas--and then walked into the Town Hall, where some designers were exhibiting and selling metal-, glass- and woodwork, as well as ceramics, chocolate, etc.. Finally, we walked up to the Palace Green outside the cathedral, where a huge tent housed a gift and craft show, and smaller external tents housed an Anglo Saxon encampment. In one corner, a fenced-off area held some 20 falcons, hawks and owls, blinking on perches and spreading their wings to catch the sun.

At 11:15, we went into the cathedral to attend the Communion service. Given the immense size of the place almost any normal congregation would have seemed small. This one probably numbered a couple of hundred. The choir of boys and men did a nice job of the familiar Byrd Mass for 5 voices, but didn't sing a motet or anthem. All the same, it was great to hear music in the cathedral's wonderful acoustics -- inspirational, even.

After the service we were looking around the church, considering whether or not to go for coffee in the Priory Hall, when Brian pointed out we were missing the falconry display outside. We hurried out, and were in time to see a hawk flying through a line of people, under their arched arms. Following that, a falcon gave a breathtaking display of diving hunting speed, rushing over our heads at the lure being swung by the birds' trainer, and an owld showed off its beautiful, nearly silent flight. To close the show, a turkey vulture walked around hunting hamburger under overturned cups and harassing the trainer's assistant. In short, all a lot of fun.

After the display ended we were all hungry for lunch, so we headed back to the cathedral's cloister and found its small, busy cafeteria. We didn't have a lot of time before the 3:30 evensong, so we stayed on the church grounds, marvelling at the stained glass and the impressive ceilings. For the evensong we sat in the choir, that is, behind the altar, under the organ pipes, and next to the choir.

Back at the B&B, we finished off the Famous Growse and then walked down the street for an excellent fixed dinner for four at an Indian Restaurant.


Ok, that's enough. If you're still with me, I'll try and get Monday's details down some other time. And (sigh) I guess I should talk about today, too!
posted by Tom at 3:20 PM | link |