Durham Cathedral

Linda has wanted to see The Lindisfarne Gospels for years and the opportunity came up to see them today at Durham Cathedral. They are on loan from The British Library until the end of the month. We had a bit of a job getting to see them as it's all very strictly controlled. First of all we had to book a slot online. There are slots allocated every 15mins. We did that weeks ago. When you get to Durham, you have to park outside the town and get a bus in, as all the town car parks are full from the number of visitors. Before you go in at the allotted time, you are encouraged to relieve yourself as there is no way to nip out and come back in. You are not allowed to carry any bags and they warn you to wear warm clothing as the temperature is controlled as is the humidity level. If your jacket is wet, you have to leave it in the cloakroom. When inside, everybody's movement is tightly controlled as they go through the exhibition. Only so many people can be together at the same time. These are things you have to do to make sure that 1300yr old books survive for all to see in the future. It's worth all the effort as the gospels themselves are quite amazing. For obvious reasons, they cannot be photographed so you'll have to make do with a shot of the cathedral instead. I was quite impressed with Durham. As a university town, you could pick worse to be educated in. Looks like a fun city to live in and I'll need to go back some day and spend a bit longer there.