Brussels

The next morning we were awake early, and moved the truck up to just beside the Atomium where there is free, shaded, parking and is closer to the action. We were there before 7, making sure of a park, at that time the area was empty but as we sat and had our breakfast and morning ablutions cars arrived and filled the spaces. Many appeared to be workers from the city who park there for free and then bike or catch a bus/tram into town for the day. A couple of campervans arrived and parked up too after we had sown the idea.

The first activity didn’t open until 9.30, we were on our way at 9 though wanting to use toilets as ours was full (there hadn’t been anywhere to empty it for 3 days). We firstly went to Mini Europe, which was very like Miniland at Legoland, and therefore a little disappointing.  I think we had been so blown away at the Legoland display and it had only been about 8 days earlier, so of course it was dumb to expect things to be even cooler. Nevermind. We bought a combined ticket with Mini Europe and the Atomium, it saved a few euro and we were planning on doing both anyway, so to the Atomium we went. The Atomium as the picture shows is a huge structure built for the 1958 world expo. It is an exact representation of an iron atom magnified 65 billion times, it was supposed to celebrate the nuclear age, scientific advances without the horror of the Japanese bombings being in the limelight. Part of the tour includes watching the structure being built in a movie. Amazing, way above the ground, only a rope (sometimes) as safety equipment, usually just relying on good balance. Certainly no harnesses, hard hats, scaffolding or what we would today see as routine safety measures. The men were working through all the seasons, in snow blizzards, dressed as Michelin men and still having to clamber to the end of towers welding and hammering. The structure is a series of 9 spheres each attached to each other by large struts which are how you move from one room to the other, on steps or escalators. Three of the spheres do not have vertical struts so they are not open to the public, but the other 6 are. The tallest (or highest) is 155m high, offering wonderful views over the outer city of Brussels. There are both temporary and permanent displays inside as well, the temporary one about migrants to Belgium, the permanent about the structure itself and the expo of 1958. After the expo the Atomium was supposed to be dismantled but there was such a public out-cry that it remained. The impression given was that overtime it wasn’t maintained particularly, and eventually I think became unused. More recently it was refurbished and repaired. The outside casings over the spheres had become tarnished I think, and they wanted to make sure it was still structurally sound. I think they said the metal had only degraded by 2% which over the time which had elapsed was impressive. Basically they recovered the spheres with hundreds of interlocking triangles of stainless steel, and it is now the sight that it is, a beautiful, space-age sculpture which has become one of Brussels landmarks/icons and most popular tourist destinations.

After lunch we headed back up the hill to the expo centre where there was a Tutankhamun exhibition that Hilary had seen advertised and was very keen to visit. I thought I ought to go for my own good, and that of my soul, though history isn’t my top activity or area of learning. I am really glad I went, it was a visual delight. All the specimens/exhibits were copies of originals but they were made by expert craftsmen and apparently were true likenesses. The exhibition began with static displays, information boards about Egypt and the bloke (I’ve forgotten his name now (already) Harvey or Henry, an Englishman who wouldn’t give up his dream of finding the tomb. The next part was a movie which told of the discovery, and then a series of three movies which were projected onto cloth screens (accompanied by audio-guide commentary in language of your choice) Once the movie and commentary were finished (each as if told by Harvey??? About what he saw when he entered the tomb), the back lights came on and a wonderful display of golden treasures was exposed, exactly as they were when the tomb was first uncovered/opened.  After these displays you continued on to more examples/copies of what had been found, but this time just as individual exhibits, each (or most) with an accompanying  excerpt on the audio-guide. It was really well done, good enough that it kept an old bore like me fascinated for a couple of hours. Hilary had a kids audio-guide which she was totally transfixed by. If I tried to talk to her she would fix we with an angry glare, put her fingers to her lips and point at her audio-guide while mouthing, “I’m listening”. She could have spent many more hours there I think. I’m not sure where her interest/fascination comes from, as I said it certainly isn’t from me, and though Di is more interested than me, she certainly doesn’t have the same ardour as Hilary.  

All in all, it was a great day, exhausting, very fulfilling, very educational and a great variety. No driving either which was wonderful!!!