It's a Sunday morning and I'm at church, though I'm not here to worship exactly.

I'm whisked through a side door and my guide points to a set of steep, rickety stairs.

We're communicating with whispers and hand gestures because there's a service and progress

and we don't want to interrupt.

We are going up.

As we go higher, the stairs get smaller and start heading straight up, kind of like a narrow

ladder.

After a little bit of climbing, I scramble up onto a small wooden platform, a platform

that doesn't feel that sturdy.

My guide hands me some ear protection and then I hold onto the railing next to me for

dear life.

It's about to start.

I'm Amanda McGowan and this is Atlas of Skira, a celebration of the world's strange,

incredible and wondrous places.

We're taking you to Boston's Old North Church, a place you might know because of Paul

Revere and his famous midnight ride.

But today we're heading up to the bell-free for another reason.

To meet the ringers who play these bells in a style that's centuries old, but with some

creativity and a little bit of math, they put their own spin-on things too.

That's not for this.

You see these giant wooden wheels with these hundreds and hundreds and thousands of

town metal bells swinging back and forth wildly.

...