Brussels Adventure! ~ From The Beginning!

Let me tell you a little bit about our Belgian adventure that took place at the very end of our African adventure...

Once again, there's so many pictures, I'm going to have to relay this in parts so I don't overwhelm anyone!!  So... from the beginning...

Boarding the plane in Douala, Cameroon, Africa; leaving the country for the first and only time in over 7 months since our arrival in September.  It was so bittersweet,  Mary and I stood together and soaked up the moment as we stepped off African ground and into the plane.  7 hours later we landed in Brussels and our next adventure started bright and early Belgian time...

After exchanging some money (at a rate that made me chock a little) we got the right change and rented a luggage locker so we could explore the town!  I had researched public transportation and we got 24 hour passes for any public transport in town (buses, trams, metro).  So we headed aimlessly into town to explore and eventually visit the two main locations we wanted to see, the Atomium and the Grand Place.

The first couple times we got off the bus and metro we had no clue where we were but just wondered around taking pictures of the beautiful city, then I saw a tram with a destination I knew I had written down as the station nearest to the Atomium, so we hopped on and it was perfect!

The Atomium was built in 1958 for the last world fair.  It is very impressive and exciting to visit.

The view from the top sphere observation deck was amazing!

each "shaft" between spheres is an escalator or stairs with awesome and different designs in each one.

The topic of worldwide water and water conservation was a theme in most of the exhibits, this is a nifty toilet (a good addition to my toilet pictures collection) with a clever faucet built into the top of the tank, so the water you use to wash your hands goes into the tank, then flushes the toilet... no wasted water for hand-washing.

Another cool shaft staircase :)

Mini Atomium model.

Underneath the real one! :)

View from the top sphere.

View from the other side :) ... there's a restaurant in the top sphere and we had planned to just order something to share for the experience and view... but we checked the menu before we went in... we couldn't find ANYTHING under 10 Euros(about $15)... We just couldn't do it, especially being used to getting a full meal in Cameroon for roughly $0.50..... so instead we shared a cookie at the base of the Atomium. :)