There's only so much usable space on a spiral staircase, the center stairs being so steep they are almost vertical. So if someone was coming down, one of us had to move towards the middle and cling to the center spine like a pole dancer so the other could pass. The closest thing to hand rails was a spiral chair rail molding on the wall of the concrete stair tube. There were no windows, just a few holes in the wall. I climbed the first 392 steps (up to 230 feet) and then the winding stairwell changed directions. No rails--holes in the walls--I was very afraid. Why do I do this to myself?
At 335 feet we were at the base of the open spires. I’d already climbed 41 steps more than I did in Cologne, the only difference is, in Cologne you only went to the base of the spires--in Ulm you went up to the tippy top, and the Munster is 14 feet taller. I shot a good photo of this stairwell within the spires. After climbing 19 steps an open metal cage, you climb 189 additional steps in a concrete tube…a tiny stairwell the goes up through the open spires, exposed, no railings, with holes in the walls. That's it in the center of the photo to the left and on the bottom. I made it to the top with no danger to myself except the possibily of slipping and falling down a concrete tube, and stressed nerves. If only I'd brought my Slinky. The top observation deck was extremely tiny, perched up there in the wind, and I was not totally relaxed as you can see by the death grip I had on that metal bar. It also appears that walking in circles all that time caused my face to slope to one side.
My best calculations show the deck to be about 13 feet in diameter, with a spire running through the middle of it, taking up most of the room. As you can see in the bottom photo, two normal size adults can barely pass.
