First stop on our bus tour was the Atomium. It was a sculpture built for the World's Fair that was held in Belgium in the 1950s. It is now used as an observation deck and individual art exhibits. It was a building marvel of the time period as in the "beams" connecting the spheres are escalators!
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| Belgium is still run by a royal family and this is evident in some of the interesting buildings around the city. One of the Kings wanted Belgium to be known as an international city so he had two oriental buildings built, one a chinese pagoda house and the other a japanese tower. This is the pagoda. |
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| Entrance to one of the Royal palaces. |
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| The senate building |
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| The main royal residency |
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| Another cathedral |
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| Small fair/market |
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| The town square |
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| Many people mistake this for a church..SURPRISE! It is the TOWN HALL! |
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| Museum |
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| Manneken pis is a famous statue in Belgium. We saw replicas everywhere.. this was a "chocolate" one advertising a waffle stand |
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| The original Manneken Pis is in a museum as it was stolen too many times..this is a replica. He is usually naked but does have many costumes. The costume of the day was the yellow shirt (leader shirt) of the Tour De France as the 1st day of this race was starting in Belgium! |
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| Funny story from our guide. The statue has hundreds of costumes, but from time to time he gets a new one. When he does they have a festival to commemorate the new costume.. and the statue begins to "pee" beer that is free to the public to drink! |
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| Amazing... I loved this view so much I got a watercolor of it! This is also the home of the "flower carpet" of brussels every August. |
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