Durham Cathedral was good. It had been hyped up to me as a kind of life-changing Nirvana which would blow my socks off, and I have to be honest: it wasn't. I arrived in time for a beautiful communion service led by Caroline, a local vicar, so that was a treat. Afterwards I wandered in a bustling crowd of visitors around the various sights on offer. It was all very interesting but seemed to have the vibe of a National Trust property, a bit of fascinating history with nice artworks. The service had been in a side chapel, tucked away so that other visitors wouldn't be disturbed by the praying that was going on, and that felt like a motif echoed elsewhere in the cathedral. I began to wonder why it hadn't been put centre stage, unavoidably at the heart of the place, so visitors might find they were being offered something more, something beyond, something evocative and spiritual ... which might, after all, be what's being sought by people who visit a cathedral in the first place.
There was a huge and wonderful installation between the nave and choir: thousands of paper doves, each carrying a prayer for peace written on it by some local person, suspended from the fantastically high roof and illuminated to look like a waterfall or shower of white rain (you can see it in the photo).
Then into the cloisters, where I found huge display boards about the filming of Harry Potter and one of the Avengers superhero movies there, together with a sizeable cafe and a huge gift shop filled with tea towels, jewellery, mugs and knick knacks. I didn't stay much longer.
(Mind you, unlabeled and unremarked in an unfrequented stretch of the cloisters is a hole in the stonework which lines up with two markings on the floor and wall to allow you to calculate midday - like something out of an Indiana Jones movie ... loved that!)
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