Whirlwind trip to Brussels

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I did quite like it here even though it is not the most exciting place in the world and has a bad reputation in Europe for being a bit of a hole. I spent most of my day up in Heysel which is on the outskirts of the city but has a nice large park, and Brupark! which is a complex that has a water park, cinemas and Mini-Europe which is quite possibly the tackiest thing I have ever seen. It has all the major landmarks of Europe but at 1/25th of the size. My camera ran out of batteries while I was halfway through Mini-Europe so there are no photos of my early evening where I went into the city centre and saw Grand Place, which is quite amazing, a huge square surrounded by cool big old buildings. I did get a photo of the miniature version of this though to make up for it. I also saw Manneken-Pis which is a nice statue/fountain of a boy peeing. I am sure you will manage to survive without seeing a photo of this.

One of the cool things about the city is that the escalators are stopped unless someone is standing on them, which meant I thought they were all broken at first, and it is a little freaky when they just start up under you. All signs are written in French and Dutch which can be a little confusing as I often only saw half of a sign and thought I was in a completely different place, instead of it just being in Dutch.

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Photos

Grand Place, Brussels
This was done when there was a flower festival in 2004, the carpet of flowers in the middle was not there when I visited.

Tanners Square, Bruges
Atomium is in the background. Bruges is supposed to be very pretty and the 'Venice of the North'. Is only an hour out of Brussels so I may go someday.

Westminster
Didn't really need to go to Belgium to see a model of this as I pass it everyday on the way home, but it was very impressive anyway.

Eiffel Tower
If you squint you can see the Arc de Triomphe and Sacre Couer on the side. Pleasure to see all of Paris without walking all day.

Atomium
This is a model of an iron molecule, and the reason I came all the way out here. The scientist in me coming out.

Park
This is the on one of the paths through the park where I sat and read Harry Potter for a few hours at lunchtime.