These two innocents, with no experience in city planning, politics, finance, engineering, horticulture or design, started with a romantic fascination with the 22 unbroken blocks of elevated tracks: "The rusting Art Deco railings gave it a sense of lost beauty, and the spaces underneath were very dramatic; they had a dark, gritty, industrial quality, and a lofty, church-like quality as well".
The city of Merida itself was founded by Francisco de Montejo y León in 1542 on top of an ancient Maya city called T'ho, whose stonework was repurposed by the Spaniards as foundations to erect lofty Catholic churches and colonial mansions.
The paintings that follow — by Hendrick Cornelisz van Vliet, Emanuel de Witte and others — take us on a tour of the little town's canals, streets and gardens and into the interiors of its lofty, whitewashed Protestant churches.
It's the feast day of saints Peter and Paul, but our host is St Andrew's, a magnificent old church as lofty as a cathedral.
They opened our eyes to the grandeur of a medieval building that might otherwise have struck television viewers as just a dark, lofty old bulwark of church and state.
The settlement was soon abandoned, too, and a new village grew higher on the hill around the new church – another lofty building, grander than any of its neighbours, which Thomas believes took on the role of the old pagan hall as the place for gatherings and celebrations.
Special features of German hall churches include lofty nave arcades and immense roofs, covering both the nave and the aisles.
It is an almost universal complaint, that in our lofty open timber-roofed churches it is impossible for the worshippers sitting towards the ends of the transepts and nave to hear either prayers or sermon.
The skyline, however, was dominated by the piercing spire of Riddarholm Church, opposite our lofty vantage point.
Perhaps that's why I found the lofty, open space inside the church more evocative of Luther and the Reformation than those closed doors.
On sweltering summer days and crisp autumn mornings I have looked at the South's beautiful churches with their lofty spires pointing heavenward.
