as usual, whenever we go on holiday, we could never leave early to go anywhere.. kids would not wake up voluntarily until got woken up.. we normally have a good "home cooked hot" breakfast and by the time we leave it would be almost 10am. we had sausage & scrambled eggs while lil missy had the dinner leftover of "chick-room" (chicken in mushroom sauce)
weather was ok on Day 2. our ititnerary : Mini Europe and Atomium and after that to Grand Place in the city centre on the way back to the flat.
we took Tram 93 from Baillie, headed north towards Stade. it was 45 minutes tram ride to Stade (Stadium) tram stop and from there we walked for 10 minutes to get to Mini Europe.
1 day ticket (for tram/bus/metro) cost 7 Euro per person (same price for adult and children), which i think is a bit expensive for child under 11 or 12 y.o.
Mini Europe was opened in 1989, a miniature park located in Bruparck at the foot of Atomium. the park is filled with 1:25 scaled models which resembles around 350 buildings, sites and monuments of famous European cities.
The Grand Place, Brussels
Amsterdam
House of Parliament & Big Ben
Sacre Couer de Montmartre
Bull fight in Seville
Slovenia
the eruption of Mount Vesuvius, Italy
there are lots of eating places outside Mini Europe and we had lunch at a place serving halal chicken meals.
from Mini Europe it was 450metre/10 minutes walk to Atomium. what actually is Atomium?
"A Seminal totem in the Brussels skyline, neither tower nor pyramid. half way between sculpture and architecture. a relic of the past with a determinedly futuristic look."
The Atomium in figures :
Total height : 102m
diameter of spheres : 18m
diameter of tubes : 3.30m
length of tubes at edges : 29m
length of tubes on diagonals : 23m
diameter of pavilion at base : 26m
weight in 1958 (on construction) : 2,400tonnes
weight in 2006 (after renovation) : 2,500tonnes
(source : atomium.be)
there are exhibitions in 5 spheres, a panoramic restaurant on level 8 and panoramic viewing on level 7. there is only one lift from ground level to level 7 and escalators and stairs in the tubes connecting spheres between levels 1-2-3-4-5-6.
in the lift going up to Level 7
panoramic view from Level 7
in a typical sphere
escalator going up, in one of the tubes, between spheres
family selfie
My personal opinion :
the Mini Europe is a bit of a let down. the area is smaller than what we imagined it would be. me & hub think that LEGOLAND miniland is more interesting.
the Atomium is a bit over-rated but its a good one off experience. the exhibitions were not as great as what i expected. the last bit of the escalator was quite interesting, like we were going down in time tunnel/star trek kinda thing.
from Atomium, we walked to Heysel/Heyzel Metro station to go to Grand Place/Grote Markt. that will be in the another post
No comments:
Post a Comment