On the doorstep

I'm sure that I'm not alone in sometimes taking for granted what we have here on our doorsteps in North Northamptonshire.

Not very far from the hubbub of the towns with the convenience of their shops, cinemas and theatres, we have beautiful countryside, woodland and country parks.

There's stunning architecture, historical buildings and beautiful churches in both the towns and villages.  We go on holiday far from home to see such sights, but sometimes fail to appreciate what surrounds us every day.

I must confess that I felt like this when I popped over the border to visit Peterborough.  I hadn't been there for a few years, and had forgotten how magnificent the Cathedral is.

The reason for this particular visit was to see Tim Peake's Soyuz space capsule, which is on display until 5th November.

This seemingly incongruous marriage of modern space travel and ancient religious architecture should be wrong, but somehow it's so right.

The tiny space capsule - which housed three fully-grown men on their descent back to Earth - is dwarfed by the magnificence of the Cathedral which has stood proudly on that spot for 900 years.

Quite how the spacemen fitted in this gadget which looks like a glorified industrial washing machine is beyond me - but as my daughter reminded me, they were all seated for their journey. Even so, sardines in a tin seems an apt analogy.

It's well worth a visit to see, and there's also Tim Peake's spacesuit in a glass case which looks like it might just fit me, a Soyuz gift shop, as well as a virtual reality pod, which happened to be shut on the day we were there though.

If you do go, remember to have a good look at the Cathedral while you're there.  As well as being the final resting place of  Mary Queen of Scots and Catherine of Aragon, look up and marvel at the frescoed ceiling which apparently includes a depiction of a monkey riding backwards on a donkey, but I couldn't spot that particular gem!