Me In EUROPE!: The BEST CATHEDRAL EVER (#totallynotclickbait)

Well this blog is a bit late, but oh well I was traveling to France, so I haven't had time. Anyways I went to Salisbury Cathedral, which is absolutely amazing. It is actually quite different to most cathedrals. Usually a town is started and after the town is big enough a cathedral is built. But this town and cathedral were built the other way around.

The reason is that the old town/old cathedral couldn't get any water because the garrison was using it, so they would have to go 3 miles to a river to get their water. So they decided to pack up and leave. This means they were able to choose the optimal spot. The ground was perfect for building on and there were plenty of water supplies. So the town got built up around the cathedral, the other thing is that the spire wasn't built until the 15th century, the cathedral itself was built in 1220–1258. Now it was built only to support its own weight not a 404-foot spire that nearly made it one and a half times taller.

It is now the third tallest in Europe, but when it was built it wasn't even the tallest in England. But all the others have collapsed. The reason this cathedral is still standing is because Christopher Wren came and saw how insecure it was in 1668, and made a plan to fix it, although his plan wasn't done until a hundred years later. The tower shifted something like 27 inches to the east and about the same to the west. But thanks to Christopher Wren all is good.

Anyways I took the tower tour, which takes you up the spire which you can't do unless you have a guide. So on my way up and down I took 200 hundred photos, so you guys get to see the best of the photos, and I will tell you a little bit more info on some of the photos.

This is just a really beautiful picture of the cathedral.

Another nice photo.

The white house on the left is a gorgeous café that has an amazing view of the cathedral.

#ghosts #blackandwhitephotos #scary

This is possibly the oldest working clock in the world.

Cool flag thing. These exact flags were actually carried by knights on crusades and into battles. #Itotallyknowstuff

First layer of roofing,

Random carving.

When the cathedral was built the were no nuts and bolts so they used very complicated joints.

More wood work.

This is just so beautiful.

The hall of woodwork. These are all just for supporting the cathedral not the tower.

A nice cramped door way.

This is a photo from the roof.

Luckily I didn't have to walk that.

I think it's a nice pano.

This is the major dome support.

Each dome is made out of tufa, and lime, so it is light weight but it is necessary it doesn't get wet.
Also the domes are so weak it can't support a full grown person.

There are a lot of cracks like this.

This is the interesting part. This is the right roof.

This is the left roof.

The reason it is like this is because one side gets all the weather but the way the make it makes both sides deteriorate at the same rate meaning they can just replace the roof at the same time.

They didn't mass produce the supports. They would make one then make a mirror image of it. So there are one that are really funky.

Some serious iron supports.

Medieval iron work.

They filled in the 4 stone stairways for structural supports so we had to walk on this.

Walking up a stone staircase.

The bells.

For fundraising you could pay $5 dollars to be able to write on a piece of glass that went up in the bell tower.

The wood work

The bell room.

The bells going off.

This is a water pump in case a fire starts.

A fire started and they made a chain from the river to the bell room, and it is said that if the fire had burned for 20 more minutes this beam would have collapsed and the entire tower would have collapsed.

Another fun staircase.

There is a chain that goes down so they can ring the bell manually.

Without lights.

With lights.
Thanks to a volunteer who donated the money for lights we get to see to the top.

How they used to get stone up to the top.
Contrary to popular belief they didn't do like a hamster, because if they slipped it would start to spin really fast and probably kill the person inside. So it would be maned by 4 guys two actually spinning it with their hands using the wooden poles inside it, and two ready to catch it if they lose control, or if they need a break.