Just spent an overnight stay in Durham, and I have some thoughts on the city. Possibly controversial. I think Durham is overrated. I've been to lots of cathedral cities over the last few years, and Durham Cathedral was nowhere near the best of them. And there was very little to see of the castle on the self-guided tour. With Durham Castle and Cathedral being recognized on the UNESCO World Heritage Site, I really expected so much more. And beyond the castle and cathedral, there didn't seem to be much to the city. Apart from enormous crowds of tourists. I never really considered Durham seriously as somewhere I might have gone to study. I'm glad I didn't go. The city center seemed small (much smaller than, say, Bath) and I'm not sure it has much to offer to the student - especially with it's pretensions to be a Northern Oxford or Cambridge (both of which are far superior places). Of course, maybe my opinion has been soured by visiting over a couple of incredibly hot days - and I've been suffering in the heat, sweating a lot more than I normally would and not really having a good time of it. But when I compare Durham to somewhere like York, I think York is a much nicer and better place to visit.
