Is it a bird? Is it a plane?

 No, it's an atomium. What's an atomium? It's a rather large model of an iron crystal lattice. 165,000,000 times large actually. It was built for Brussels' 1958 World Fair, and it's somehow still there.

You can go up it if you like. I imagine there's a good view to be had. I didn't actually go up this one though.

Europe Central

The Lonely Planet 'Europe' book lists lots of Brussels' attractions, but says nothing about the European Parliament (its Brussels building - there's another in Strasbourg) or the other European Union institutions housed there. 

I didn't let this stop me seeking some of it out though. I made my way to the former, and to the European Commission building, to see what's there.

What's there were some nice, shiny buildings, no people, signs to a public tour I could have done if it hadn't been a Sunday, and a big poster welcoming Latvia to the euro currency zone. The good old euro - hope Latvia doesn't live to regret it.

Tintin and friends

 I forgot to mention Brussels' best attraction of all - the Comic Strip Museum (Centre Belge de la Bande Dessinee). At least, if you're an afficionado of Tintin, or of Tibet & Duchateau, Josephine Baker, the Peeping Policeman, or Cubitus, then you'll possibly think so. 

I'm not really aware of them, except perhaps Tintin (vaguely). So I gave it a miss.

I did stumble across Tintin himself though, making his way down a fire escape on the outside of a building. The others all have murals around the city too, and there are lots of comic shops, and a cartoon-themed cafe-restaurant with its own Tintin statue.

Little man pee

Must be something pretty special to look at on this street corner. There's always a crowd, and by some accounts it's the most exciting thing Brussels has to offer.

Fortunately those accounts are wrong. There are indeed lots of more interesting things than a nondescript statue of a small boy urinating, the Manneken Pis.

So why all the interest? Does it record an important historical event, or symbolise something important about the Belgian character? Who knows? According to Wikipedia, there are lots of rival legends about it, so basically nobody knows what it's all about.

More Brussels

Seafood restaurant street (Rue des Bouchers)

Europe's first indoor shopping centre (Galeries St-Hubert)

 Musical Instrument Museum

Park near the Atomium

Typical European 
vapour trail sky

Brussels: a grand place

Trying to get a handle on Brussels before I went there, I was asking people who'd been there what they thought of it. There seemed to be two camps. Some loved it, some hated it, and said there was nothing to see.

Now I've seen it for myself, I've come out firmly on the side of ..... the middle ground. There's quite enough to give you an interesting time for a few days, even if it's not in quite the same league as Berlin, Seoul or, well, Sydney.

There's the (smallish) central area, with narrow cobblestone streets, with the magnificent central square, the Grand Place. This has elegant historic guildhalls all around it, and it's quite a sight.

There are parks, there's a royal palace. There are lots of museums, including the Magritte Museum and the Musees Royaux des Beaux-Arts, both of which I explored. Magritte was Belgian, as was Breugel, sort of, and they're well represented. There are lots of Breugels, Vermeers, Van Dykes, and Rembrandts - all Dutch or Flemish - and it's all rather grand.

Not so grand was the over-automated business hotel I stayed in. What's this? No check-in desk, just a couple of self check-in machines. My machine didn't recognise my booking, then didn't recognise my passport. The other machine was successfully blocking the admission of the other chap who was trying to check in at the time. So out popped a receptionist from her hidden broom cupboard to do it all for us anyway! "Oh, zees machine, sometimes it eez so stoopeed!" she told us. I can't see that the automation is saving them much money, but the tiny room I was allocated probably was.

Berlin by train

Many years ago I set off from my then English home, on a summer hitch-hiking holiday, across northern Europe, but with the loose destination of Berlin. Good rides were coming thick and fast, and when I got an offer of a nice long ride with an American adventurer in a VW beetle, I stuck with him. He was bound for Copenhagen though, rather than Berlin, and turned left at Hamburg. So I changed my plans, and had an interesting exploration of southern Scandinavia instead.

I've often thought about completing that trip one day, actually making it to the fabled city this time, and last month I had my chance. I headed off from my recent winter English exile, and did a little north European exploration again, this time by fast trains.

It was Eurostar from London St Pancras to Brussels Midi/Zuid, then German ICE (Inter Continental Express) trains on to Berlin. It's a little over two hours to Brussels, even with a couple of stops along the way. Then from Brussels to Cologne in another two hours, then change trains and Cologne to Berlin in four and a half. Both the Eurostars and the ICE trains are said to travel at up to 300 km/h. The Cologne - Berlin one had a speed indicator in the cabin, which indicated up to 250 on this particular journey.


Here's a view of a French train and a German train, nose to nose in Brussels Midi station. The French one was about to head back to Paris, while I was about to board the Berlin bound German one going the other way.

The German ICE trains were comfortable and roomy. I found the Eurostar rather cramped though. Very much just another train, though it was fast and it was on time. There was a 20 minute period in a (rather too normal) railway tunnel along the way.

Being connected to England, which is always at war with various parts of the world, the British requirement of special security screening, with consequent extra check-in time, means that you have to add extra time to your journey planning. It strikes me that if they go ahead and build their next high speed train, from London to Birmingham, and save 40 minutes of journey time, they will then throw it all away if they feel the need for extra security and check-in measures on that one too!

Back to Berlin though. What a delight of a city to travel around in! You arrive at the fabulous new Hauptbahnhof, looking like a five-level ultra-modern shopping centre with concourses and train platforms

running through at all the right places - serving underground, on-ground, and elevated lines. You show up at the tourist office there. They sell you a 72 hour ticket for 27 euros, which gives you useful discounts at most of the museums and other attractions you'll be visiting, but also unlimited travel on all trains - U-bahns, S-bahns ('Stadtschnellbahns' - the older, partly elevated rapid city railway) - as well as trams and buses . Just get it stamped when you start your first journey, and then hop on and off as you like, with never another thought of price or payment procedure.

There are quite a few cities that could learn a lot on simplifying their public transport fare structures from Berlin. Sydney for instance, while priding itself on finally introducing its smartcard ticketing system (originally promised for the year 2000 Olympics), is nevertheless sticking to a ludicrously complex pricing system for it.