Durham

Durham, England 

This is the county of Durham. Durham county is the only one in England that uses the suffix of county.

In Durham there are two main attractions:  a huge cathedral and a castle. After the Norman Conquest of England (1066) the castle was built to control the local peasants who rebelled a lot and did not like William, the new king. The Normans built the castle and put a "Prince Bishop" in charge to keep people loyal to the king.

This particular type of castle is called motte and bailey. The motte is the mound. On top of the mound lies the keep. The bailey is the area which is flat and has all the castle walls around it. At first the castle would have been made of wood so it could be built fast. After a while it was rebuilt in stone.  An interesting fact about the Durham castle is that it was never captured by an enemy.  It is the only major castle in England that was not overtaken by an opponent at one time or another.

The cathedral was built around the body of a saint called Cuthbert.  Cuthbert was a monk on the island of Lindisfarne in the seventh century.  (He was born around 634.)  After Cuthbert died he was buried on the holy island of Lindisfarne.  But the monastery was attacked by Vikings.  So the monks decided to move Cuthbert's bones to a safe place.  When they went to move his body, they discovered that it had not decayed at all and they said this was a miracle.  Eventually they brought Cuthbert's body to Durham so pilgrims and other tourists would come there.

If you look at the shape above outlined in black you can see that it is i a cross. This is the design of the Durham cathedral.  Like most cathedrals, the Durham cathedral is in the shape of a cross with the altar at the front and pews on the left and right sides toward the front.  

A wealthy landowner in Durham County was named John Washington.  He gave money to help build the cloisters or house next to the cathedral (in the picture above) where the monks lived.  The plaque below is on one of the walls at the cathedral.  It shows that John Washington was an ancestor of George Washington, the first president of the United States. 

This is the crest of the Washington family.  The crest has stars at the top and red stripes in the center and at the bottom.  The tour guide at the Durham cathedral said that the Washington crest may have been related to the stars and stripes of the American flag.

Netherlands

Netherlands

Flag of the Netherlands 

This blog will be about Amsterdam, Netherlands where I went on holiday from Leeds. Amsterdam is often mistaken as the capital of Holland but Holland is actually a region of the Netherlands. 

All of Amsterdam is actually reclaimed land. This means that all of this land was covered by the ocean. Then people cleared the water off of the land. The reason people in Holland wanted this land so much is it was a prime place for trade and easy to export and receive goods. Today the way people prevent flooding is by lots of canals and dams. I was able to go onto a canal cruise and was surprised at the number of canals in Amsterdam. 

As you can see there is a lot of water in Amsterdam.

In lower land places there is still minor flooding. I went in to the main park called Vondel park. I learned that every 30 years in this park a meter of earth had to be put on top to prevent flooding.  

Vondel Park, opened in 1865

On all the houses in Amsterdam there are hooks on the roofs. I saw these on my cruise. These were there because of the amount of trade in Amsterdam. They would be used to hoist cargo out of ships. Today they are often used to hoist furniture into the buildings. 

If you look towards the top of the house you see things sticking out. These are the hooks.

One thing that is in Amsterdam is the Anne Frank house. My dad went there. Anne Frank was a girl who lived during World War II. She hid behind a wall for two years. Sadly she was captured by Nazis and killed. We bought a copy of her book in Amsterdam.