L'Atomium

Yesterday we all (me, Naomi, JoJo, Amelia, Jenee, and guests Dan's sister Jen and brother-in-law Marco) went to the Atomium in the northern part of Brussels. The Atomium is a bizarre structure that models a crystal of iron, magnified 165 billion times. It is Brussels' answer to the Eiffel Tower. A brief comparison:

Eiffel Tower:

• Built for the 1889 Expo
• 324 m/1,063 ft high
• Iconic

Atomium:

• Built for the 1958 Expo
• 102 m/335 ft high
• Iconic

The Atomium comprises 9 spheres. 8 spheres are positioned at the corners of a cube, and 1 sphere is at the center. The cube is standing up on one of the corner spheres. The spheres are 59 ft in diameter, and they are connected by tubes about 10 ft in diameter.

The exterior of the spheres was originally aluminum, but a few years ago the Atomium underwent a significant renovation, and now the exterior is a shiny stainless steel.

You enter the bottom sphere of the Atomium, which has a gift shop and a few exhibits to set the mood of the 1958 Expo. Then you go up a diagonal tube to one of the lower spheres, which currently has an exhibit about Antarctica on its lower level, and the Arctic on its upper level. There was a little room showing the movie "Nanook of the North." I had no idea it documented the life style of Inuits—in fact, apparently it was the first full feature-length documentary ever made (in 1922). I had thought "Nanook of the North" was a fictional story, by someone like Rudyard Kipling or something!

Next we went to the central sphere, which houses a snack bar, where we had lunch. Then we descended to another lower sphere, where we could see (through glass) a living area for kids who on occasion have extended stays in the Atomium, eating, learning, playing, and even sleeping there. This sphere was unoccupied when we saw it.

The top-most sphere houses a restaurant, and you can only get there from the lowest sphere via Belgium's fastest elevator, which travels through the Atomium's only vertical tube. We did not visit the restaurant, which presumably provides outstanding views of Brussels; perhaps another time with other guests. (I think the Atomium will stand up well to repeat visits.) I'm not really sure what's in the other 4 spheres that we did not visit.

I thought the Atomium was pretty impressive architecturally and aesthetically, inside and out. (Despite its strange shape, however, I don't think it was technically difficult to build, even in 1958. The Eiffel Tower, in contrast, was difficult to build, although I don't know if that would have been the case today, or in 1958.) I had never heard of the Atomium before learning about Brussels last fall, but I think not many cities in the world have artificial structures that rival it (although it's no Eiffel Tower).

After touring the Atomium, we walked around the nearby parks and saw the exterior of the Royal Castle of Laken, the residence of the King of Belgium and his family—not to be confused with the more centrally located Royal Palace of Brussels, where the king TCBs (takes care of business). The Laken grounds include a greenhouse that looks like a glass palace. Nearby, we also saw the exteriors of the Chinese Pavilion and the beautiful Japanese Pavilion. Jenee went on to see the interiors of the pavilions (reportedly very nice); Jen and Marco went to corner the chocolate market at Grand Place; and JoJo, Amelia, Naomi, and I headed home to recuperate from all the activity.