Built for the 1958 World's Fair, Atomium has been called the "Eiffel Tower of Brussels". The comparison is accurate to the extent that both were temporary structures that were only intended to last a few months, both of them became popular tourist attractions, and consequently both of them are now overpriced traps.Its a sunny day which is the real novelty of Brussels, I've lived in some rainy places (Vancouver, London) but Brussels is by far the soggiest of all. Its 2pm and the shadows are already starting to get long so we head off to the old expo fair grounds. They recently cleaned Atomium up and the shiny metal balls sparkle in the sun, its nice to see it restored to its former "glory". Seeing it from the outside really should have sufficed, but its only 4 euros with a student card so we head in. There is only 1 lift for Atomium, when it was built it was the fastest lift in Europe, taking you up 100 meters in only a few seconds. Its still only 1 lift though, and the queue takes about 30 minutes. The lift has a glass ceiling though which is a novel first.
After spending so long in the line we walk around and take a quick look at the view before sitting down in their funky 1970's lounge. The stairs from the top ball are closed so we have to queue to take the lift back down. In the line we run into Andy and that Hungarian fellow (I'm crap with names) from NATO. The middle ball contains a gelato vendor, oooooh. We walk down to another sphere, it has a neat glow-in the dark display, but that's about the most exciting thing. The remaining spheres contain mostly old barbie dolls, old photos and movies. The rest is closed off because of maintenance work.Yea, this photo captures how impressive the inside was....
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