Strasbourg 3 - the cathedral

One of my great accomplishments, and great shames, while living in Strasbourg was to climb the cathedral.  At the time, it was just something one did after a party.  When I say "something one did", I'm not sure how many people actually did it.  I just know that I did it twice when, at around 2 AM, somebody said "hey let's climb the cathedral".  It's not like we saw anybody else doing it on either of those occasions.

Looking at it from the bottom, I can only guess at how we got started going up.  I know we started on the North-west corner.  It didn't seem that difficult, I was just following along.  Now, the thought of it makes me shudder.  I also shudder at the damage we could have done to this fantastic structure (started in 1176, and was the tallest building in Europe for a couple of centuries).  But mostly, truth be told, I think it's pretty cool and am happy I am still alive.  We went right to the very top, three or four people holding on way up there and looking at all the lights below.  On the way down the second time we climbed it, we found an open door and got into a cat walk and could look down at the interior of the church from way up high.  They don't do that on just any tour!

Cathedral from a distance.

Cathedral up close.

Cathedral straight up from the front.  We started on the left side of this image (seen from the side in the next picture).

Inside the cathedral.  From the last photo, you can see the catwalk, just below the upper stained glass.