Daffodils and Durham

buddies!

 Our first visitor!   It is finally and at long last spring here in York, and during that break we had the pleasure of a visit from one of our friends, Miss Rachel Davies who we went to school with in Walla Walla and I went to India with.  She arrived Friday evening, carrying with her the necessary makings for momos!  Little Tibetan dumplings, these little tasty delights can be filled with things like cheese and spinach, potatoes, mixed veggies, or even sweet fillings for the more extravagant.  Ours were to contain spinach, cheese, garlic, ginger, and onion.  Luckily the dough was already made, but as we didn't have a momo cooker or even a steamer, it took quite a while to steam them all in our make-shift contraption.  Approximately three hours and one fiery towel  later, our tummies were full of those yummy momos.  The next day we headed to church, followed by a lengthy walk around our two campuses, showing her where all the learning happens.  

Walking the Viking Wall for the first time

The old kings hanging out at York Minster

Myself, Rachel, and Jon at Clifford's Tower

The next day we showed her the sights of york.  Walking through the daffodil lined wall, past the daffodil covered hill of Clifford's Tower, through the old Shamble street, to the Bar Covenant- the oldest working covenant in England.   Here we met Sister Agatha, who gave us a tour and had a nice chat with us.  She showed us the hole where the priests hid during the time when they were persecuted, and even showed us the 450 year old hand of Margret Clitherow, who was pressed to death.  Yikes.  We also went to the Minster and saw the ancient crypt, treasury, and undercroft before heading upstairs to enjoy an Evensong.  Lots of walking during the day and many fast paced and frustrating games of Dutch Blitz during the night.  The next day we decided to head to Durham, a short train ride away.  Rachel is contemplating doing her Phd at Durham, and since it was so close we thought we'd go and check it out.  Plus we'd heard they had a really cool cathedral and had seen it on our way to Newcastle and Edinburgh.  It was pretty impressive.

Much blockier than York Minster, it was still rather large and an impressive display of Norman architecture.  While there I also made an unexpected discovery, the tomb of the Venerable Bede!  I had heard of Bede since my freshman History of England class and how cool he was, named by his peers in c. 700 as the 'Father of English History', I was pretty excited to find him.  We also checked out the castle, which is now part of the University.  The castle keep is actually student dorms!  How amazing would that be.  You actually can't go visit unless you take a tour, so we did that and it was pretty informative.  There was this five hundred year old massive wooden table that looked like it weighed a significant amount.  The tour guide informed us they used to be used in the kitchen till Health and Safety told them that wasn't wise.  Unsure what to do with them at that point, the Ruby team then decided to take it upon themselves and carry one of them up the ancient staircase to the very top floor, where, 50 odd years later it still remains to this day, as no one else can manage to carry the thing.  Durham also has a nice river encircling the city which we walked along before catching our train back.  It was a quaint little city with windy roads and hilly terrain.  Our tired little feet finally took us home, where we watched the old classic A Little Princess, ate aloo gobi and mint chocolate chip ice cream, and played more rounds of Dutch Blitz before accompanying Rachel to the train station the next morning.  A great visit with a great friend!

The town of Durham!

Durham Cathedral

My old buddy Bede!