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Published: April 23rd 2010
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Lots of tulips After a bus ride out of Amsterdam, we arrived in Brussels, Belgium, the capital of the European Union. We arrived at the Noord Station in what seemed to be the financial district just north of the inner city. The hostel was right in the middle of the inner city, right by the Bruese metro stop. This city was less dense than Amsterdam, but was not missing any modern conveniences. The public transportation system still consisted of a subway, tram, and bus systems.
Our first full day we spent walking around the inner city and looking at all the churches, monuments, and municipal buildings. The Royal Palace sat in front of a large park with statues and fountains. It was a primarily flat city, but the East side does elevate a bit. We stood at the top of a parking lot to one of the buildings and enjoyed a view of the entire cityscape. An engraved bronze map labels the larger buildings in the distance. From there you could see the Atomium, the center of the Worlds Fair in 1958.
That evening we decided to try the beer at Delerium Café, a place recommended to us for a Brussels experience.
Leopold II
His name is everywhere around here. This is where I discovered lambic beer. I don’t quite understand the difference in manufacture but the result seems to be a beer with less carbonation, and often mixed with a fruit flavor. Oh yeah, did I mention these beers were 9-10% ABV? I didn’t think much of it until the next morning. When I spent most of the day nursing a hangover I decided to go easy on the Belgian beer. I don’t even want to own up to how few beers I had that night, but let’s just say I only had a couple beers at the next Belgian bar we went to, two days later.
The next day we set out to find the Atomium. This building definitely owned up to the hype surrounding it. It stands as tall as any of the skyscrapers in Brussels, but I’ve never seen a skyscraper quite like this. A total of 9 spheres are spatially arranged to represent the crystalline structure of iron. Each sphere is two stories high with each story having about as much floor space as a couple tennis courts. Hallway-sized tubes with stairs or escalators connect the spheres. Three of the spheres are aligned vertically
with an elevator running from the bottom, through the middle, and into the top sphere. Only about half the spheres were open to the public. Each sphere containing a history of Belgium from shortly after WWII to the beginning of the 70’s. The end of the war marked the beginning of a boom of science and technology, including chemistry, and unlocking the mysteries of the atom. This inspired the architecture behind the Atomium. After waiting in line we rode the elevator to the top, a journey that took a surprisingly short 22 seconds! At the top was a font of photographic opportunity. This view ashamed the view of the city we had seen the day before. I took pictures out of just about every window there.
From there we went to the Comic Museum. The heart of the museum was an homage to cartoonists around WWII and German occupation of Belgium. However, this was not the most exciting exhibit, and not being able to read French really cut down on the amount of enjoyment, but I did find a couple interesting things. The main publication for comics at the time was called “Tintin”, a name I had not heard
Botanique Kruidtuin
Beautiful Botanical Garden. since the HBO cartoon series when I was a kid. Each publication had the unmistakable hairdo of Tintin and his dog, so I was sure it was the same. Apparently Tintin was not only a comic itself, but the basis for many other comics in that era. A later cover of Tintin displayed Willow. Yes, the 80’s movie with Val Kilmer and the midget. I also found an exhibit dedicated to The Smurfs! Apparently these guys were first developed by a Belgian cartoonist before being picked up by Hanna Barbera.
One of the things I’m noticing about the public transit systems in Europe is the honor system they all seem to follow. I’m pretty sure I’m buying the right pass to get where I want to go, but it is not labeled very clearly what to do with it, and no one is around to check. Looking around at the others using the transit system, I notice that some seem to just get right on without attempting to scan anything. Travis’ theory is that enforcement of public transit is probably more expensive than the money they lose without enforcement. I guess that makes sense, but that theory doesn’t mesh
well with a city that hires bathroom attendents full time just to make sure you pay ,30 EUR for using the bathroom. Oh, and I did I mention its ,10 EUR to wash your hands? Ok, people have to go to the bathroom, fine, I get it. But do you really want to provide people with a disincentive to washing their hands?
Overall, the people were very nice, but not too many spoke English. Not many of the street signs or business signs were in English either. This was probably because most of them were already in two languages, French and Dutch… or maybe Flemish.
Now, we’re off to Paris, France.
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Steve
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Way Cool
I didn't have time to finish this before. I read the description of the atomium but didn't see the picture. That is way cool.