Ruth's Birthday Trip 2008: Durham

To celebrate Ruth's birthday, we decided to take a weekend to go and see Durham and the surrounding area.

	Wonderful eroded stonework on historic buildings.
	Cross in the Cathedral precincts. It was warm, but cloudy and with the constant threat of rain.
	The cathedral itself. No photography allowed inside, but we enjoyed looking around.
	I laughed.
	Ruth's favourite sort of museum - the small local ones filled with nonsense!
	We took a cruise on the river - and could look back up at the window of our room at the Marriott Royal Court.
	A light on a bridge as we pass beneath it.
	The river is lined with boathouses for the various (mostly University) rowing teams.
	The cathedral from the river. Still overcast but the rain's holding off!
	There is absolutely nothing half so much worth doing as simply messing about in boats...
	Bridge to nowhere - it used to be used to carry water into the city, first by hand and then in gravity fed pipes.
	Old buildings form part of the bridge itself here.
	The river Wear in the evening when we went for some Thai - having stayed dry all day in spite of the appearance of the sky.
	The drizzle caught up with us at Beamish on Sunday, so we decided to head underground and explorea drift mine. Helmets mandatory.
	Goose!
	The platform for a short stretch of railway (a few hundred yards) with VERY old locomotives running on it.
	Wood burning boiler, and mechanisms of levers and valves that you can see working.
	I love machinery like this.
	I'm not sure that smoke meets modern emissions regulations!
	A lovely vintage bus still transports visitors around the site...
	...as do these trams. Heavy clouds were forming and rain was starting to fall, so we jumped off the tram and ran for the car!
	There was just time to stop (in the pouring rain) at the Metro Centre on the way home, for Ruth to do some shopping. Well, it was her birthday weekend after all!