Atomium

Day 2 dawned bright and sunny which is always fabulous but even more so when you haven't seen the sun in what feels like months.  We wanted to get out in the fresh air so decided on a trip to the Atomium.  

Built for the World's Fair in 1958, the Atomium has become a symbol of the European Capital.  On 8 different levels in 5 of the spheres you can see the permanent exhibition on how the Atomium was constructed and what the World's Fair grounds looked like when they opened; you can see 360 degree views from the top; and you can visit the temporary exhibition, in this case, the Magritte exhibit on surrealism.  Located just on the outskirts of the city and easily accessable by public transport off we went to see the most visited tourist sight in the country.

 The elevator takes you straight to the top...And to these views...

 Strangely, we had to go all the way back down to the ground floor before we could go back up through a series of escalators and stairs to reach the exhibits.  Our favorite of which was the Magritte.

René Magritte, a Belgium icon himself, was known for using ordinary objects in not so ordinary ways and making us think about our preconceived ideas of reality.   The girls had a great time looking at the exhibits and trying to figure out what it all meant...

This one made us giggle.  Painting the egg as the bird it will be in the future was inspired.

My favorite.  The painting on the easel is supposedly what would be seen behind it if you took it away (an uninterupted landscape) but in reality who knows what is behind the easel?  Is it barren land?  Is there a fire?  Is there something hiding that we are not supposed to see?  Very much like how our lives can be...

 Souvenier time!  This one decided to pay 2 euro for a 0 euro note...(it is kinda cute)

While B actually bought the picture that they snapped of us with Belgium's comic book character, Marsupilami.  Don't have one with Santa but I am getting quite a collection of the photos from everywhere else :)

 

Back out in the sunshine we stopped for a truly Belgian lunch - French Fries (yes, they are Belgian) and then went off in search of the Comic Book Museum.  Which it seems like eveyone else was looking for too since there were no less than 4 huge school groups lining up when we got there.  Quickly getting in ahead of them all we walked in and spent a some time perusing the history and the artistry of the comic book.  But let's not sugar coat it, the girls were really only there to see their favorite - the Smurf's (once again, Belgian).

 It wasn't hard to figure out where they were hiding the Smurf village.

We thought the museum was ok but nothing spectacular.  We had wanted to see more of the comics and less of the technical side of things.  But it was worth an hour of our time and we were glad to have done it.  But we had some more wandering to do so we stepped back out into the sunshine and off to find a place for dinner before it was actually dinner time.  We actually stumbled upon a great pub so we though we would sit and have a drink and just enjoy the time together.  The girls got virgin drinks while B and I tried some of the famous Belgian beer which is every bit as good as the hype.

We found them handmaking pizza right across the street from the pub and suddenly we knew we had dinner!

 This one found some street art and spun a tune or two on our way home after a long day of sightseeing and dreaming about our adventures for tomorrow.