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.
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.
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.
The sun was streaming directly through a tiled stained-glass window, turning us and our surroundings all different colors.
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.
Next we hopped on a rickety elevatory attached to some scaffolding for our ascent to the top.
Inside the roof, we were greeted by yet another new landscape.
Luckily the giant bells weren’t ringing while we were visiting them.
Up another (less scary) spiral staircase, and we were on top of the Dom.
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).
Such gorgeous photos. I’m wishing I did the Dom Rooftop Tour instead of the City one now.
Ditto!
Great report on the tour and great photos to match. I agree it is a fantastic tour.
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.
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. 🙂
Those pics are awesome. Adding that tour to my list of things to do here (perhaps on less windy days, though).
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!
What neat views. Especially as there was no unending stairs as advertised, I wish I had done this instead of the windy city tour.
@JoAnne – I was going for the Dragnet theme. In my head it works. 🙂
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.
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?