The ancestral spawning ground

[zotz]

Sunday. York. I went down with my brother - he was going anyway, for a model railway show (I have mentioned that he's into model railways, haven't I?) so he suggested I tag along. I did

Comments

[_nicolai_]

Did they have the correct Kwak glass?

[zotz]

They claimed to. I didn't see it personally.

Any idea what it's like?

[_nicolai_]

Like this
It's quite distinctive.

[zotz]

It is indeed. Have you tried the beer?

[devilgate]

Andrew H has a brother?

[zotz]

As I grow older, I find that hardly any of the friends I had assumed to have been hatched in jam-jars actually were.

I don't know whether to be pleased or disappointed.

[shermarama]

I realise that one extra person saying so will make a negligible difference to whether or not it actually happens, but really, go to Durham. The cathedral is the sort of space that can make Jon shut up.

[zotz]

That is indeed top of the list of Places To Go In Durham. York cathedral looked very nice too, but was mostly out of bounds due to busyness.

[shermarama]

I'm not sure that there's anywhere else that is a specific thing to be visited in Durham. There's the castle, but that's a college full of students and doesn't really have much castle-ness, except when considering it as scenery. Depends if you like sixties concrete architecture, which I rather do and sometimes get flak for. The student union building is this tiered thing that runs down the steep sides of the river, with a high concrete bridge connecting to the peninsula full of old stuff, and I like it. The river itself is a thing to see, too. Durham's not very big in horizontal directions but is well-endowed with vertical.

[badriya]

I know someone else who goes to train shows in York, Rupert Brown. Not sure if he was at that one but he has very nice trains. He has a track all round his garden and they come out from a hole in the wall of the house. Occasionally we've been allowed to go and watch the trains. I must ask if grandson can go and see them.

[grendelis]

Yes Durham is one of the best looking UK towns from the train. So fleeting and mysterious, something I too should check out one day.

We have been known to hang out in a Belgian Bar. Try Brugge Blonde also. Although it has a more conventional glass.

I remember the racecourse at York... I was at the first (and I assume last/only) York Rock Festival in 1984. The only time I got to see The Sisters of Mercy live in their heyday...in the rain. I think it was my first real rock festival. I was woefully unprepared for the cold wet weather and definitely wasn't dressed or feeling hip n trendy or even Kuel Goth/Indy/Rock Chick that day - I felt crap.

Glad to hear the train back wasn't cancelled due to snow on the line or something.

[thehumanstomach]

There's a good pub in Durham called the Dun Cow, the other.side of the Cathedral from the railway station. The Cathedral is stunning - go.

Central, underneath the Peartree serves Kwak, and in the proper glasses too.