A fine freezing day and still no snow

Well, the sun was out today (unlike the constant sprinkling rain yesterday) so we decided to climb the 533 steps to the top of the South Tower of the Dom Cathedral. Twenty steps up and my thighs were already protesting.  I had to stop a few times to give my thumping heart and screaming muscles a rest.  It was a stone spiral staircase, parts worn down by the traffic it received and seemed endless.  The occasional slotted window showed you were making progress and getting higher but I got a kind of claustrophobia near the top - just anxiously waiting for the roof above me to open out and not be the underside of more steps.  I even heard whistling but that could have been fancy wheezing as I couldn't talk from exertion.  The view was amazing though.  There was a mist so visibility was limited to a few kilometres but I still counted 14 churches (or buildings that definitely looked like churches as there is probably more). Now I had to climb down....
There were some really beautiful doors in the church - very medieval in design - which I would have loved to have. It probably would have looked out of place in my modern home so I would probably need a cathedral of my own to match.  There was a service going on in the interior so we headed to the treasury. I can completely understand why people revolted at the opulence of the Catholic Church. Oh the gold! Oh the gems!  Each bishop had a 'crook' made especially for them and of course they had to have precious stones inlaid into the top and gold filigree down the handle and ornate enamel depicting biblical scenes on the sides.  It looked like the crooks (crosier) were to shepherd power and wealth rather than men.  They were totally gorgeous so I guess I can understand the appeal of commissioning one.  There was one particular piece I would have been happy to have on my buffet even though I am not a lover of trinkets.  It was exquisite!  And probably worth a few million dollars...
Having exhausted the kids attention spans we got rugged up (again!) and went to the main train station for lunch (aren't we fancy?!) got unrugged, ate, rugged up and walked along both sides of the foreshore for several kilometres.  There were some good photo opportunities of the Dom from the opposite side of the river.  One in particular on top of a building looked promising but Tanner summed it up when we questioned visiting it - "If it has stairs, it's a no". We found some santas on jet skis near another Christmas market where, you guessed it, the Godfreys bought more food!  To be fair mum bought us a gingerbread snowflake to share also.  It was pretty crowded even though we thought most people would have left after their weekend in Cologne so we headed home.  On the way we saw some pretty lights and diverted.  We found the ice skating rink we had missed yesterday by stopping just short of it and wandered a little before setting off for the hotel.
We are all sore and tired and are dreading the muscle pain of tomorrow.  I would like to go back to the church tomorrow as we missed the main attraction of seeing the Shrine of the Three Magi. We saw the original wooden reliquary but the supposed bones of the three wise men are kept in a golden reliquary behind the main altar. The church itself was literally built to 'house' their remains.  The construction of the church spans 6 centuries.
Well the bell tolled the hour of eight from the church next door to the hotel so that probably means I have rambled on enough.
Stay tuned for another exciting episode of Frozen Kym...