Unlike the cathedral in Trier, people were shooting photos inside the Cologne Cathedral at will. This was less of a church and more of a tourist attraction. The dimensions of the cathedral are massive as far as cathedrals go--472 feet long, 283 feet wide, with interior ceiling 143 feet high. My photos don't come close to capturing the splendor of this work of art. Speaking of works of 'art', below is a shot of me. I paid 1.5 Euros to go to the top of the cathedral. There was just one catch--there were no elevators, and I had to climb 519 steps in a winding, steep, tiny, claustrophobic, dirty stairwell made of stone that was no more than three feet wide.

This would be a problem. I’m slightly claustrophobic and afraid of heights, although widths and circumferences don't usually phase me. I was only a fraction of the way up when I started feeling light-headed and very nervous. I wondered if I'd trip over skeletons of those who freaked out and died in the stairwell. The up and down people used the same narrow stairway, and the steps were barely three feet wide per photos I've posted--about an inch wider than my shoulders. Tripping on the wet stone stairs would have sent me tumbling in a very nasty fall. As is the case on winding stairways, the inner steps are almost vertical. I stopped a number of times and tried to calm my breathing, feeling much like I did when I drove up Mt. Evans last summer. I thought I was hyperventilating. After I got out of the stone stairwell I had to walk through dark stone hallways two-feet wide to Der GroBBe Peter (St. Peter’s Bell), one of the nine church bells at the Dom. It weighed 24 tons and was the largest swinging bell in the world. The clapper alone weighed 1763 pounds and could give you one of the biggest claps you'd ever hear.