Tour of Dom Tower...

In mid-May, I went to Utrecht for a tour of Dom Tower (which can only be accessed on a guided tour) and a walking tour of the city with other moms from the BSN.

I arrived a bit early, so popped into the cathedral across the way. Construction started in 1254 and continued until 1517 when the funds ran out. Built as a Catholic cathedral, it switched to being a Protestant church after the reformation of 1580, during which this artwork was defaced. Originally the 367-foot (112-meter) Dom Tower, completed in 1382, was attached to the church as you’d expect. However, it became detached in 1674 after a massive storm destroyed the poorly constructed nave (apparently those flying buttresses should not have been considered optional).

The tour of the tower included walking up 465 steps. Luckily there were several stops along the way. On this floor, we learned about how materials were brought up using ropes and pulleys through holes in the floors.

I’ve walked through the underpass of this tower many times and never bothered to look up. After the tour, I looked up to see the passages through which materials would have been pulled up into the tower. The two outer holes are bricked up with only the middle one still accessible.

The bells were humongous. I don’t remember all the facts about them, but I do remember that they escaped being melted down by the Nazis because they were marked as historic artifacts.