there is beauty in the city went to brussels / bruxelles / brussel

April's beauty in the city's visit took in the city that places itself at the centre of the European Union. Belgium is a country of ironies. The seat of European government, yet officially the world record holder as the country which has been without a government for the longest (11 months and counting). A country placed at the heart of a European coalition designed to maintain a continental peace, yet one which is seeing rising tensions between the speakers of its two competing languages.

                               

Our beautiful day in Brussels took in;
gruesome sculptures and beautiful landscaping  in La Botanique - Brussels' historic botanical gardens

The Atomium -  a monument originally built for Expo '58, the 1958 Brussels World's Fair. Designed by André Waterkeyn, it stands 102-metres (335 ft) tall. It has nine steel spheres connected so that the whole forms the shape of a unit cell of an iron crystal magnified 165 billion times.

 

The panoramic view from atop the 100 metre structure offered a perfect chance to see Mini-Europe  a model park containing  reproductions of the most attractive monuments in the European Union, at a scale of 1:25. Roughly 80 cities and 350 buildings are represented. The park is renowned for the quality of its models, some of which cost as much as €350,000 to make

  

A trip to the Brussels Art Fair where Artist, friend and VIP Kevin Hunt was showing 

                                     

 

 

some much needed and top quality refuelling

before finishing with a whistlestop tour around 6 art galleries.