If it's Tuesday, This Must be Belgium - 8/5/08

It's that time again.  My weekly edition of life in Belgium and beyond.  And this week I'm actually in Belgium...and even Brussels, my new home away from home.  Since I've now been here for about 3 months (minus travel time), it seems like as good a time as any to show you one of the biggest attractions in Brussels.  No, not the manneken pis. 

I'm talking about the Atomium.

The Atomium is pretty much what it sounds like.  It's an atom, specifically an iron atom.  Actually, it's more a symbol of the atom concept, because it represents an iron crystal, magnified 165 billion times.  In this crystal system, the atoms are placed on the vertexes of a cube, and one atom occupies its center.  The elementary centered cubic system is composed of 9 atoms.  Oh, never mind, the rest is way too technical, so here's a photo.

You can see by the cars and people on the ground that the structure is quite big.  Here's another view showing the crystalline design of the iron atom.

And one more for luck

The Atomium was built for the 1958 World's Fair and Exposition.  Like Paris with its Eiffel Tower built for the 1889 World's Fair, Brussels wanted something big and memorable.  The story goes (at least the one told for tourists) that the first idea was to copy the Eiffel Tower, but build it with the point down instead of up.  [Okay, it doesn't sound particularly credible, but it gets a chuckle from the visitors] 

This year happens to be the 50th Anniversary of the 1958 Fair, so there is a rekindled interest in the site.  The original exhibit halls are gone, but the main globes of the Atomium have photos and the usual museum descriptions of past events.   One is this unique car that was popular (with who??) back in that era.

Did I say you can go inside the globes?  Well, as you can see in this photo there is a straight tube going up the middle to the top, which is an elevator to a restuarant and viewing area in the top globe.  Some of the side tubes can be traversed out to the side globes (six of the nine globes are supported and can be occupied).

Going out to the side globes is a bit of a trip.  One has a very steep escalator.

Another is just steps (aww, a red carpet, do you feel special?)

As I mentioned, there is a restaurant in the top globe and the middle one has a snack bar.  There is one side globe that can be rented out for business meetings, and another side globe reserved for use by children's groups.  Check out the "rain drops" (H2O), complete with mattresses for sleep overs (these were suspended from the ceiling for storage when I was there).

From the globes there are windows and portals to look out at the surrounding area.  As you can see it has gotten quite cloudy and soon will start to rain.  Big surprise for Brussels (not).

Feel like jumping off the top of the Atomium.  Well, you can.  There was a steady stream of people who took the elevator to the top, climbed a ladder up to the topmost globe, and slid down a cable to the ground.  Wait, there goes one now....

That pretty much does it.  I'll give you one more shot of the Atomium towering over the Eiffel Tower.  And before you say, how is that possible, I'll just say that this mini-version of the Eiffel Tower is just one small part of a whole mini-Europe that I'll cover in a future post.

Thanks again for joining me on my travels.  There's more to see in Brussels, as well as all the other places I've visited (and will visit).

Until next time....