Once upon a time two travelers, Jane and Tom, left Edinburgh, in Scotland, to journey to York, in England. They had in mind some stops to make along their way. Their first stop was to be Lindisfarne, also called “The Holy Isle”, a small Island off the English coast north of Newcastle. Indeed it is a bit of a sticky wicket traveling to Lindisfarne, for it is reached via a causeway that is flooded, and therefore closed to traffic, twice a day by tides. But when Jane and Tom arrived at Lindisfarne at 11:30 in the morning the tides had [literally] just cleared the causeway and made it passable.
So Jane and Tom drove into Lindisfarne. Jane and Tom wanted to visit Lindisfarne for in the 7th century a man named Aidan (later Saint Aidan) left Iona, where Jane and Tom had recently been, and went forth to Lindisfarne to seed the Gospel. A Northumbrian monk, Cuthbert (later Saint Cuthbert) came to Lindisfarne. The Lindisfarne cathedral was connected to the church in Durham. When Cuthbert died his body was removed to Durham and buried in the cathedral there.
Although Jane and Tom had planned to visit Hadrian’s Wall, Mother Nature decided that this was not going to happen. At least it wasn’t going to happen unless Jane and Tom were willing to get absolutely soaked in the massive downpour that commenced as they neared the Wall.
So Jane and Tom decided that since there was a connection between Iona and Lindisfarne, and between Lindisfarne and Durham, why not visit the Durham Cathedral. They arrived at the cathedral just in time to attend evensong, but not early enough to take the time to read the directions and prohibitions of the Cathedral. Jane and Tom sat in the quire and heard beautiful music as the evensong was sung. Afterwards the clergy from the service were standing to greet people. Jane and Tom, having [as heretofore mentioned] not read the signs, decided to ask if it was permissible to take photographs in the cathedral [it is not]. Jane decided to ask the female clergy person.
“Is it permissible to take pictures?” Jane asked.
“No, it’s not,” responded the female clergy person, “but there is a guide book on sale that has excellent pictures. Where are you from?”
“Connecticut in the States.”
“Where in Connecticut?”
“Newington, just outside of Hartford.”
“I know where that is. I lived in New Haven for three years.”
“At Yale?”
“Yes, at the Div school.”
“When were you there? I went there also.”
“Mid 90’s”
“Your years overlap with mine.”
“My name is Rosalind Brown.”
“Oh, my god! I know you!”
Rosalind was a class behind Jane at Yale Divinity School.
Since picture taking is not permitted in the cathedral Rosalind took Jane and Tom through the Chapter House into the Durham Cathedral cloister. Durham Cathedral was used as a shooting location for indoor and outdoor scenes in the first two Harry Potter film. The Chapter House was used for classroom scenes. In the picture of Jane and Rosalind you will see the cloister columns and common just outside of the Chapter House. Real Harry Potter cognoscenti will recognize it.
Whilst exploring Durham Cathedral Jane and Tom got to see the tomb of Saint Cuthbert, who you will remember was involved with Lindisfarne.
Since it was starting to get late Jane and Tom drove on towards York. They had been using very well done maps to navigate from place to place. However, regarding York these maps let them down: there was simply not enough detail to figure out exactly where their lodging was. This was further complicated by the fact that the sheet, dutifully printed out prior to the trip, that had the name, address, telephone number, and simple map for the hotel, got misplaced. So in the dark Jane and Tom drove into a walled, medieval city with no idea of where they were going. They both agreed upon “Marygate” as the name they could vaguely remember as the lodging address. And upon checking their trip calendar they found the name “York Coach House Hotel”. But despite their best efforts at finding Marygate they were thwarted. There are numerous one-way streets in York. And the city is sliced by the rivers Foss and Ouse. After an hour and a half of driving it was nearly 11:00 pm, and still Jane and Tom had not found their hotel. Finally they found a petrol station just about to close for the night. They were able to purchase a local map on which they could find the street of their hotel. But alas, when the drove down this street (Marygate), whose lower end terminated at the rivers’ edge, they had not seen a sign for the York Coach House Hotel. So Tom parked the car and walked into the Bay Horse Hotel, and asked the bartender, “Can you help a traveler in distress? We’ve been driving around your fair city for an hour and a half, and we can’t find the York Coach House Hotel.”
“Julie, this poor lad can’t find your hotel. What’d you do? Leave your lights out?”
It turns out that Julie Thomson is the proprietress of the York Coach House Hotel, and she only frequents the Bay Horse Hotel bar once or twice a year. And on this very night she was there. This was fortuitous in the extreme, for Liela, the evening hotel clerk, was in the process of locking down Coach House for the night when Julie called on her mobile phone and alerted her that we were coming.
July 29 is my daughter Julie's birthday. After a very long day of sightseeing and travel, through the marvels of modern telecommunication and a time displacement of five time zones, I was able to call and wish her a happiest of birthdays.
And so, as this story ends, Jane and Tom were let into the Coach House Hotel and had a restful night’s sleep, and continued their adventures the very next day.
P.S.: How could anyone not believe in guardian angels?
No comments:
Post a Comment