Indeed we did. It helped that we went first thing in the morning, and early enough in June that tourist season was just barely ramping up, so it wasn’t terribly crowded. The hardest part of the final bit was that it’s 2-way, so there needed to be a little gut-sucking to let people pass (I am not a tiny man). Thank goodness for my “Colorado superpowers”–my heart rate went up a bit on the climb, but it barely winded me, despite my non-trivial size. And, even though I’m mostly blind, the view was totally worth the effort.
My fear of heights is mostly rational–if there’s a guard rail, they don’t much bother me. If not, I will only approach the edge on my belly :).
If you’re within an hour of Cologne, by all means go see their Duomo. It was the tallest structure in the world for 500 years until the Eiffel Tower was built in the 1880’s.
I love sitting in the beer garden on the Rhine River at the Konesbacher Brewery just south of Koblenz. It’s nectar of the gods.
Belgian beers are also wonderful, but it’s essentially a boring country. Spending a Saturday night at the Andechs Brewery-Monestery an hour southwest of Munich is truly a special night.
There are railings, and the climb is in sections so if you get 1/3 or 2/3 of the way up and decide that’s it, you can move to the other staircase and come back down. (At least, that’s how I remember it). The last 100 feet or so looks like this (spiral staircase going up the center).
I would say don’t force yourself. Only you’ll know if you’re enjoying yourself enough to be worth the effort. The view is nice, but I was more impressed by the cathedral itself. Things that look like tiny little gothic frills from far away turn out to be as big around as my leg. There aren’t a lot of opportunities to really see a building like that, the details and the scale, and you don’t have to go all the way to the top to experience that. And save some time for the interior, too. The degree of time and skill to build something like that is awesome (in the true sense of the word).
I recommend Here Maps (by Nokia). Free download from Google Play if on Android phone. Download offline maps for free, has turn by turn directions, all offline. Worked a treat when I was in Germany and France last year.
