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| Brussels Atomium |
Wikipedia gives a short but sweet description of what it is about...
The Atomium ( /əˈtoʊmiːəm/ ə-TOH-mee-əm) is a landmark building in Brussels, originally constructed for the 1958 Brussels World's Fair (Expo 58). It is located on the Heysel Plateau, where the exhibition took place. It is now a museum.[1]
Designed by the engineer André Waterkeyn and architects André and Jean Polak,[1] it stands 102 m (335 ft) tall. Its nine 18 m (60 ft) diameter stainless steel clad spheres are connected, so that the whole forms the shape of a unit cell of an iron crystal magnified 165 billion times. Tubes of 3 m (10 ft) diameter connect the spheres along the 12 edges of the cube and all eight vertices to the centre. They enclose stairs, escalators and a lift (in the central, vertical tube) to allow access to the five habitable spheres, which contain exhibit halls and other public spaces. The top sphere includes a restaurant which has a panoramic view of Brussels.
We only stopped briefly there to take some pics, then we were on the motorway to Ghent. In this part of the journey were given descriptions of all the optional extras and asked to nominate which ones we will take. I passed on the horse carriage ride through Bruges today, as I have visited before. In case anyone want s to revisit my last blog which describes my experience in Bruges in 2014, you can click here.
Tomorrow we will be taking a canal ride and having a local guide walk us through the town, so I thought that might do me. Also, tomorrow night I have signed up for the trip to Ypres to hear the last post at Meningate and to visit some war cemeteries, so there's a full day ahead and it's nice to have a little break this afternoon.
So we arrived at Ghent and the bus had to drop us on the outskirts of town as they are not allowed in to the central city area.
It was a freezing day. The temperature said 12º but I think it was lying! It rained quite a bit on and off, but I never was totally soaked.... I was very glad that I had brought out my big fleece jacket and warm track suit pants. The big case is worth the effort sometimes!!!
Our guide today was Daniella and she took us around the town and showed us various sites...
Agian... Wikipedia gives a short description of Ghent.. which means "junction" of the rivers.
Ghent (/ɡɛnt/; Dutch: Gent pronounced [ɣɛnt] (
listen); French: Gand pronounced [ɡɑ̃] ( listen); German: Gent pronounced [ˈɡɛnt] ( listen)) is a city and a municipality in the Flemish Region of Belgium. It is the capital and largest city of the East Flanders province and after Antwerp the largest municipality of Belgium. The city started as a settlement at the confluence of the Rivers Scheldt and Leie and in the Late Middle Ages became one of the largest and richest cities of northern Europe, with some 50,000 people in 1300. It is a port and university city.Here are a few pics to give a flavour of the town...
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| Ghent |
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| Ghent is based around canals |
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| Ghent is based around canals |
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| Old parts of Ghent |
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| Meat Market |
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| Entrance to the fish market |
The 3 main buildings that dominate the city centre though are...
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The Belfry |
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| The Church of St Nicholas |
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| The Church of St Bavo |
St Bavo’s Cathedral has a rich history and it is also filled with art treasures that make many an art-lover’s mouth water: from the baroque high altar in white, black and red flamed marble, the Rococo pulpit in oak, gilded wood and marble, to a masterpiece by Rubens: Saint Bavo enters the Convent at Ghent, and the Calvary Triptych by Justus van Gent, the Gothic chandelier/sanctuary lamp, the opulent tombs of the Bishops of Ghent – and of course the world-famous Mystic Lamb.
The art piece of the Mystic Lamb is just beautiful. Our guide Daniella took us to a smaller chapel where she was able to explain different parts of the Mystic Lamb to us. There were literally millions of tourists there and it was all a bit rushed. Today is the day before their Labor day holiday, so many people take it as a long weekend. And the Church was just teeming with people.
Last time I went to Ghent I took the audio guide and spent about an hour or so in front of the Mystic Lamb.... This time I spent about 10 minutes. I have to admit, I'm not that fond of Churches that are really tourist attractions. I know it's lovely that important art works are made available to people, but it didn't feel like a Church to me!
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| My pic of reproduction - we weren't allowed to photograph original |
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| Information about the Cathedral |
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| Flowers on the altar |
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| Flowers on the altar |
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| Flowers on the altar |
So, after all that we walked back to the edge of the town to collect our bus. I think everyone was glad to get inside out of the cold. It is such a fantastic experience to come to these towns and just feel the "vibe" of the place. It becomes very hard to put it into words - and I'm always forgetting all the wonderful details our guides share with us.
Our journey then continued to Bruges where we are staying in a hotel that apparently was a monastery before it became a hotel. It's a little bit older and more "lived in" than our Brussels hotel bit it's warm and comfy and clean and has wifi!!!!
Tonight we are going out for dinner in the town which is part of the deal. We really are well looked after. You could just about eat yourself silly on these tours. A cooked breakfast is provided every day, and the meals at night are enormous. it's hard to find the happy medium sometimes.
It's nice to have a few moments to myself now to just check my emails and the footy news!!! Important things of life are still going on!!!
Beautiful architecture in these European towns, but must cost a fortune to maintain. I hope you are enjoying being driven around. Do you find you doze off on the bus? Keep warm! Meggsie x
ReplyDeleteThat would definitely be me dozing off on the bus.
DeleteI remember when we did the family bus trip through Italy our bus had to be parked on the outskirts of town sometimes quite a distance from where we were staying but our drivers would drop us at the hotel door then go park the bus and walk back themselves.
ReplyDeleteYes, that still happens. We have a lovely young driver, Peter, who looks after us well. You really need to be able to walk to come on these tours!
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