Up North By Steve Rudd

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So, you look forward all week - at work - to your one or two days off... right? And what do you do on such days off? Housework, no doubt. Do you ever think you should do something more worthwhile with your sacred time off? Like travel, for instance. County Durham isn't that far a trip from East Yorkshire, and if you set off relatively early you can make a good day of it up in the area. One of the best places to start has to be the small but beautiful city of Durham, that reminded me of Windsor, and which is totally and utterly dominated by the magnificent Cathedral that is so stunning it has been deemed a World Heritage Site, visited by people from all over the world.

Much of the city's charm lies in the fact that the River Wear skirts around the cathedral and castle which makes the setting all the more spectacular, and no trip to Durham should be without a nice riverside walk along the Wear. Durham is a thoroughly unconventional city in that it is so small. Driving in from the direction of Sedgefield, it seems that you are through the outskirts and right into the heart of the city below the cathedral literally within two or three minutes.

There seems to be no messing around driving through residential areas whatsoever, which is fantastic.

There are plenty of car parking opportunities, such as in the spacious and cheap (£1.80 for four hours at the time of writing) Sands car park, not far from the Gala Theatre that should satisfactorily appease your entertainment needs should you stay the night. There are a decent amount of high street retailers crammed into the attractively steep and winding streets that radiate out from the north of the cathedral, but the vast majority of visitors to the city won't be there for the shops, but for the transcendental experience waiting for them at Durham Cathedral.

Most churches and cathedrals these days charge visitors for entrance because the upkeep of such grand buildings costs the earth, so I was surprised that there was no visitor charge for entrance here, though there was a suggested donation amount of £4 per visitor. Time spent in the cathedral cannot be defined in monetary terms anyway. Not when the sense of peace and tranquillity that pervades the huge building could quite effectively change your life. Strolling around, you will see people in silent prayer throughout the cathedral, and it's impossible not to be humbled by the atmosphere and overwhelmingly amazing architecture.

If, like myself, you are prone to speeding around places as opposed to taking your time, that might mean you get to see the majority of Durham within just a few hours. Obviously you could quite easily spend all day savouring the delights of the cathedral, but if you feel like a change then why not head east to the coast? And to Seaham. I really wanted to check out this coastal town because I'd heard a rumour that one of my favourite films of all-time, Billy Elliot' had been filmed here. Also, there are 11 miles of heritage coastline stretching south from Seaham to Crimdon, which appealed to me. But Seaham was simply a mess, or at least the sea-side of Seaham that I saw was.

Continued ... next page

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