Church spire climbing in Croatia is scarier than spire climbing in other countries. We climbed St. Duje Cathedral in Split, St. Lawrence Cathedral in Trogir and St. Mary's church in Zadar.

In other countries, the staircases to the top of spires are narrow, stone staircases. They are enclosed and feel very solid. In Croatia, the staircases usually hug the outside wall of the spire. There are lots of open windows so you can feel the breeze blowing through the spire and it feels very open. As you climb you can see that's it a long way down both on the inside and outside the spire.

At the entrance to each climb there was a sign warning you that you were undertaking the climb at your own risk. Most of the staircases that we climbed were in pretty poor condition. They were rusted metal staircases, usually covered in pigeon poo. There didn't seem to be any health and safety concerns either. At the top of St Lawrence's Cathedral in Trogir, there was no barrier or railing to prevent you from falling into the hole and down the ladder.



With my fear of heights (really, it's a fear of falling), I was pretty impressed that I made it to the top of these spires. It was definitely worth it for the views (below: Split, Trogir, Zadar).



More photos of Split and Trogir and Zadar on Flickr.

Our visit to Split, Trogir and Zadar was part of the Aegean Odyssey. Mum, Dad, Andrew and I spent a few weeks in Croatia and Greece with a quick visit to Slovenia and Austria in the middle.

There is always a church post, isn't there?

Florence's main ABC is the Duomo. In Italian, Duomo translates to cathedral. I always thought it came from Dome. But no, duomo comes from the Latin "domus" meaning house. In this case, the house of God.

Florence's Duomo is Basilica di Santa Maria del Fiore. It's made of pink, green and white marble and the decorations on the facade are very elaborate. It looks like a giant wedding cake. Its "world's largest" is its dome. It's made of red brick and is the largest brick dome ever constructed. When the Duomo was built, it was the largest church in the Italy. Until the Pope got cranky and decided that the largest church should be in Rome and not in Florence. Ok, enough about the stats.

Because we're a bit meh about churches now, we usually visit them for one thing. To climb them. Andrew and Jess, conquering the churches of the world. At the Duomo in Florence, you can climb the bell tower or the dome. We choose to climb the Dome.

The climb itself is quite fun. It's not just one big spiral staircase (which I hate, because it makes me so dizzy).

The first part of the climb takes you out on to a narrow balcony under the dome which overlooks the inside of the church. The inside of the dome is painted with a representation of the Last Judgement. The scenes from hell are quite disturbing. There is a skeleton with a scythe rounding up people to send them to hell. A faceless monster chomps on naked men. It's rather detailed and we spent a bit of time taking it all in. The balcony is so narrow that it is one way only and no passing. We couldn't stray too long because of the people who were waiting behind us.

The second part of the climb is easy. Just normal stairways, back inside the walls of the church. On the right, the dome wall curves away from you.

The third bit of the climb is the fun part. You have to climb over the top of the dome. Climbing this stair case had a bit of an Alice in Wonderland feel to it. It's a staircase built into a curved floor. Going up it was quite easy. Later on we had to climb down it which was a little disorientating.

Finally, you climb one last steep ladder to emerge into the bright sunshine. The view from the top is impressive. But, of course it is. You're standing a top the tallest building in the city overlooking the beautiful city of Florence.





More photos on Flickr.

Travelling around Europe you can get a serious case of the ABCs. What does it stand for? Another Bloody Church or Another Bloody Castle. Every city has a "famous" church that you "must" visit. Andrew and I've become a bit meh about churches and now they have to be pretty amazing to impress us. So, I was a bit worried when I discovered that Cologne's biggest tourist draw card is a church. Was it going to impress to us?
The church has some notable accolades:

• It's a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
• From 1880 - 1884 it was the tallest structure in the world. (Pipped by the Washington Monument).
• It has the 2^nd tallest church spire in the world (and it has two!).
• It has the largest facade of any church in the world.

So, what is the verdict from these church-weary travellers? Two thumbs up. Yup, it's pretty impressive.

Cologne Cathedral (or the Dom) has an interesting history. Construction started in the 13th century and after more than 200 years, work stopped for a bit of a break. A break which ended up lasting 400 years, after which construction resumed in 1842. The workers of the 1300s left a crane atop one of the half completed spires. The medieval crane was a landmark for Cologne for 400 years (seen in this photo). After work started again in the 19th century it took them less than 40 years to finish. The completion of the cathedral was celebrated as a national event in 1880, only 600 years after construction started.



As you can imagine with a church of this size, the inside is cavernous. There are a lot of stained glass windows.



My favourite stained glass window in the church is a modern one designed by Gerhard Richter and installed in 2007. The window is constructed from identically sized pieces of coloured glass, the placement of which was randomly selected by a computer. They are meant to resemble pixels. The colours harmonize wonderfully and the window is beautiful when lit up by daylight. I spent several minutes just staring and appreciating. Then I spent several minutes wondering if I could achieve the same effect with a patchwork quilt (file that creative thought away for the future.)

The main purpose of our visit to the church was to climb the spire (2nd tallest in the world!). There are 509 steps to the top. You have to climb a stone spiral staircase to the carillon (I hate spiral staircases), then a metal staircase, and finally a metal spiral staircase to get to the top.

There is another world best for the church in the belfry with the largest of the 12 bells, Petersglocke, being the world's biggest free swinging bell. We were in the belfry at midday and when the carillon played, it was "stick your fingers in your ears" loud. We were a little disappointed that the biggun didn't get rung.

The viewing platform at the top of the spire is 98m above the ground. As expected, the view from up there is amazing. Definitely worth the climb.





More photos on Flickr.

After the Vatican Museums, the next stop on the agenda was St Peter's Basilica. Before heading to St Peter's, we did stop to rest our weary feet and squeeze in a couple of rounds of pasta. (Literally... I'll explain later.)

Our mission for St Peter's was to conquer the dome. Reputedly the largest dome in the world, I definitely wasn't going to let it beat me. We caught the lift up the first two hundred stairs and then climbed the remaining 300 or so. In the end it wasn't that difficult at all. I must be getting used to climbing objects. Although, I still don't like the going round and round and round bit of the spiral staircases. There was also a passage way on the climb which was a bit disorientating. We were walking in the space between the outer dome and the inner dome. The walls were curving away and we were trying to walk upright. Sometimes you just have to close your eyes and put one foot in front of the other.

My main impression of the viewing gallery at the top is of congestion. It's a bit hard to appreciate the outlook from the top when you have to elbow your way through a pack of people just to get to the balcony edge. The view of St Peter's square is impressive though. It's not until you view it from this angle that you realise just how big it is. I can imagine it jam-packed full of people when the Pope makes an appearance.

The climb down finishes in the church itself. I was a bit overwhelmed by the size of the basilica. It's huge! Although, it's no longer the largest church in the world. It did hold that title for a long time. However, it has now been outstripped by the Basilica of Our Lady of Peace of Yamoussoukro in Cote d'Ivoire.


More photos on Flickr...

On our final day in Budapest, we visited St Stephen's Basilica and saw the Holy Right Hand of St Stephen. St Stephen was the first king of Hungary. When they dug him up to canonise him they discovered that while the rest of his body had disintegrated, his right hand had mummified of its own accord. It now has pride of place in its own section, the Chapel of the Holy Right Hand, in the Basilica. They parade the hand through the streets once a year on St Stephen's Day.

We also climbed the Basilica. We decided not to take the lift and climbed the 364 steps to the top. (No problems for me; I'm becoming a pro at this climbing spires business). It's one of the tallest buildings in downtown Pest, but the views aren't as good as those from the hills in Buda.


We stopped for morning tea at the famous Gerbeaud café. We sat outside and had to keep a watchful eye on an army of small but daring sparrows. I was using the facilities when our order was delivered. When Andrew's attention was diverted one bold sparrow seized the opportunity to peck a huge chunk from the corner of my cake.


An indulgent morning tea should be followed with some intense exercise so we wandered across Elizabeth Bridge to the foot of Gellért Hill. We then hiked up a steep incline to the top of hill where the Liberty Statue stands (one of only two communist monuments left in Budapest). She holds a palm leaf aloft, watching over Budapest. The climb was well worth it for the fantastic view. It was another beautiful view of the Danube River and Budapest.


We then hotfooted it back to Pest and headed north to the Hungarian Parliament. We were booked into a 2pm tour. It was quite a rigmarole getting tickets for the tour. As I have already mentioned, we turned up on day two at 10am to be told that the tickets for the day had sold out. Poor Andrew got up at 8am on day four to go and get tickets (while I slept in, isn't he wonderful!). In the end it was only a half hour tour through the lobby of Parliament and into the old House of Lords.

The inside is very gaudy. The décor heavily utilises pink marble and gold leaf. The façade of the building is beautiful, designed in the Gothic Revival style. From the top of hills of Buda this beautiful building nestled on the banks of the Danube adds to the already impressive outlook. Apparently the Parliament is under constant renovation due to the materials it was built from.