Monday 25 April 2011

Durham (4) a riverside walk to.... the Garden centre !!


There are several reasons for doing this post from Durham, least of all because it was the next thing in the diary ... 26th February. Over the last few posts, I have noticed that the focus quality on transfer to blogger has suffered on compression to the size I transfer too. I have removed the "/s320 or /s400 " as directed by the help pages. Any comments and help appreciated here.

The second reason for this post was the inspiration that brian walking has been to me in providing me with the incentive of a route map. Brian seems to like walking in the same areas that i am familiar with and like me, loves to armchair walk at home at times. This post is dedicated to him as it has been a hard six months to get to this stage... It's not ideal but it's a start.....


The route starts at a car park on the top edge of the map, circles the outside river bend around the Cathedral and continues down the right hand side of the river to a garden centre at Shincliffe. For information, the city centre is also in the top left hand corner.



Finally the last reason for posting this walk even though the weather was not very good, was to show that I had not deserted the local walking group that I help to organise  (Previous blog walks ... post 2 - Craster,  4 - Leyburn Shawl, 14 - Etal to Ford and smaller groups to ... 29 Seahouses to Bamburgh & 43 Waterfalls walk). There have been several operational problems recently to do with my availability, the structure and facilities on the walk. I'll say no more on that one except that the original idea was to start from the Garden centre and walk into Durham. How shocked was I to discover that the walk had been reversed and the objective of the walk was to reach a Garden centre !!

Hopefully, there will be enough interest to capture your imagination by images along the route although I wasn't overjoyed with the material available today.

Riverside apartment for sale

River restaurant with a view

Alternative cathedral view

The first section of the walk I covered on Durham (2) Winter riverside walk and don't wish to repeat these images here so I opted for alternative angles..

Arrive by bike.....

... for boat practice


The 11th century chapel of St Andrew on Elvet bridge now a trendy Italian bistro called Melanzana.


It was time to leave the city and all the tourism features that involved and pretend that we were out on a serious walk !

A view from the bridge....walk down the left and back up the right

Lemon Drizzle trophy at the other end


On the return journey, we passed a pagoda next to Durham City cricket club. The weather seemed to get darker as I opted for black and white and the grim reaper was evident on the roof...


Cricket seems like it has always been played here next to the river as the club was formed in 1829 and was one of the first to join the local league many years later in 1903. In more recent years, Durham County cricket club was given senior status to play with the big teams and have done rather well. The people of North East England are historically passionate about their chosen sport and cricket is no different here.


On crossing the bridge, we entered urban life again and found a man.... fishing for his lunch. Is the cost of food this expensive in Durham City? !!


A couple of skyline shots to finish with of the 11th century Cathedral and Castle keep, the latter being rebuilt in the 1840's for University student use.




After a quick trip across the city centre we reached the "restaurant with a view" but there was no customary tea shop at the end of the walk so I remembered my earlier visit into the Garden centre wearing my full mountain equipment... the embarrassment of it !! It's just as well it was a large cup.... because it had to last a lot longer than I thought it would !!


12 comments:

  1. To me...these images are so stunning and contain everything that I find so beautiful. I adore the shot of the cottage with the blue door. Such a great pop of color.

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  2. Wow! Thanks for that J! And another great post too.

    Not long now until I'm back into the swing of walking/blogging; Northumblerland in May, Dartmoor and Exmoor in June, and the Lake District in July.

    Regards, Brian

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  3. A grand post as usual. St Andrews chapel is superb. I really will have to stop in Durham thanks.
    I compose in Widows Live Writer. Images are edited in Photoshop Elements and compressed there. I then sharpen save to the organiser and drag and drop them into the post.
    If you would like the full words and music then drop me an e-mail. Have fun.

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  4. I enjoyed this photo walk so much esp when my eyes were on the riverside. Those 11th century cathedral and castles are beautiful. And the last photo is FUN.

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  5. The objective was the garden center?? That's like people going on a Mediterranean cruise where their objective is the shopping available at sea's edge.

    I love these photos. What a beautiful city! The cathedral, the bridge, the river...but it is sad that the Chapel of St. Andrew is now a bistro.

    I like that bright spot of blue in the cathedral/gate photo! All the photos are great, but I'd like a poster of the one just after the map.

    I'm going to have to look up the recipe for that lemon cake. It must be good. I've seen lemon cake in at least two of your posts. :-)

    I don't know what others do, but I always upload my photos and organize by month taken, then go into that file and resize to 500 px those that are going to go into my 'blog' folder, to be used later. I have no idea what one is supposed to do, but that's what I do.

    This is a great post, and I'm definitely putting Durham on my itinerary for a next visit and eating at Bella Italia!

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  6. When I see the name Durham, I can't help thinking of the Pink Panther lol!!
    I can't get my head around file sizes, I just load the photo up and let blogger do it, but visiting other blogs their photos are larger and seamed to have alot of detail, so I have had a change around and have started useing the XLg photo setting. This next weeks Saturday Steps has alot of flower photos and they seam to pop out there is so much detail.
    Love the trip around the town and your photos, the amount of tea Howard drinks one of the tea cups would be about right.
    Have a good week
    George and Jan x

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  7. Lovely set of images of one of my favourite places.

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  8. You seem to love lemon cake. It is indeed delicious, whatever the recipe.
    River restaurant with a view'' - What a view -bridge, boat practice, fishing, etc..
    Superb photos as usual in your posts!

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  9. Another great tour. I too like another commenter use Windows Live Writer, it is free to download and I think it gives you more options to size your pictures and other options. The one downside is that the thumbnails do not show up when someone has your link nor do the pictures show up when you add/view behind the blog name. But is a much easier picture to add photos too.
    Love the last pic too!

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  10. This is the most plentiful walk I ever seen,
    gorgeous!

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  11. Jay, I just love coming along on these walks! Such a beautiful place you live.....*sigh*. You just don't get this beauty in Las Vegas. So you know I am really enjoying this!
    Looking forward to the next trek!
    Have a wonderful Wednesday!
    Debbie's Travels

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  12. Beautiful post and pictures. I love these old buildings.
    Thanks for sharing.
    Greetings from,
    Berit.

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