Dom, dom dom dom… Köln!

Cologne's big Dom

We just returned from a weekend of cavorting with other expat bloggers in Cologne. More about WEBMU is coming up in a future post; right now I want to show you a ridiculous number of photos from our rooftop tour of the cathedral, one of the highlights of the weekend.

inside and high up in the Dom in Cologne

Cologne’s cathedral (Dom in German) is the city’s big recognizable landmark. It is Gothic and old, and definitely worth exploring from as many angles as possible.

hello down there

The tour started with a walk along a narrow balcony that snaked its way around the interior of the church from about half-way up. 

inside the Dom

stained glass reflections

The sun was streaming directly through a tiled stained-glass window, turning us and our surroundings all different colors.

reflections on the cathedral's interior

colorful blogger

From there we wound our way up one of those narrow, handrail-less stone staircases and before we knew it we were outside admiring the flying buttresses.

outside

dom rooftop

Escher-esque

Next we hopped on a rickety elevatory attached to some scaffolding for our ascent to the top.

the way to the elevator

Inside the roof, we were greeted by yet another new landscape.

inside the dom roof

Luckily the giant bells weren’t ringing while we were visiting them.

Dom bells

Up another (less scary) spiral staircase, and we were on top of the Dom.

on top of the Dom

view from the Dom, Cologne

I loved this tour. If you ever find yourself planning a trip to Cologne, I can only recommend you book one for yourself (even if it cuts into your allotted kolsch-drinking time).

view from the Dom

11 thoughts on “Dom, dom dom dom… Köln!”

  1. whoa, i read too much into the title. i thought it was the dom, dom dom dom wedding song and you can imagine what i thought you might have done. …it’s a collection of really really gorgeous photos.

  2. Without a doubt, this is the best thing I’ve ever done in Cologne. Your photos of the two spires from the roof is just surreal. 🙂

    Riayn, come back to Cologne and we’ll do the tour again. 🙂

  3. Those pics are awesome. Adding that tour to my list of things to do here (perhaps on less windy days, though).

  4. Wow: what fantastic photos. The tour looks like it was fabulous – I’m sorry I missed out on that. And it was great to meet you, but I wish there had been more time for a proper chat!

  5. What neat views. Especially as there was no unending stairs as advertised, I wish I had done this instead of the windy city tour.

  6. The advertised mountain of steps almost scared me away from the Dom tour, too. It was such an added bonus that there didn’t end up being very many, but even with all those steps the tour would have been worth it.

  7. Hey, great set of photos. It was certainly well worth the climb up into the roof for a close look. I’m sorry that I did not get a chance to speak with you. Maybe WEBMU2012?

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