Weekends away

Weekends away should involve as many historic sites as possible, even when the real reason for the jaunt is to catch up with friends and, sadly, attend some meetings. We did manage a few minutes (scarcely more) in my favourite building in the world, aka Durham cathedral. It spoils you for all other cathedrals, trust me. Tynemouth priory was also on our list, but in the end we looked at it from across the street, under some awning, watching the flag-pole wave worringly in time with the lamp-posts on what was a particularly gusty Saturday. A new-to-us site also made it briefly into our weekend: Fountains Abbey. We liked this. The boy has a date to take me for a weekend to Ripon at some point in the rest of our lives so we can "do" this properly, and Ripon cathedral too. In addition, in keeping with the season of Lent, we attended a showing of Into Great Silence, discussed here.