1 The Grand Place was voted the most beautiful square in Europe in 2010 in a survey by a Dutch website.
2 Cycling route. Home base was over on the right.
3 The blue line represents GPS tracks. We were milling about at the start and end of the excursion.
4 La Grand-Place is a remarkably homogeneous body of public and private buildings, dating mainly from the late 17th century. The architecture provides a vivid illustration of the level of social and cultural life of the period in this important political and commercial centre.
5 La Grand-Place, Brussels - UNESCO World Heritage Centre
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9 The Bourse de Bruxelles or Brussels Stock Exchange was founded by decree of Napoleon in 1801. In 2000 the BSE merged with Paris Bourse, Lisbon Stock Exchange and the stock exchanges of Amsterdam, to form Euronext N.V., the first pan-European exchange for equities and derivatives and was renamed Euronext Brussels. It now belongs to the NYSE Euronext group, the first global stock exchange.
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11 The Atomium, oriiginally constructed for Expo 58, the 1958 Brussels World's Fair. Designed by the engineer André Waterkeyn and architects André and Jean Polak, it stands 102 m tall. Its nine 18 m 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.
12 Tubes of 3 m 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. CNN named it Europe's most bizarre building
13 Inside a sphere illustating their size.
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15 A view from The Atomium
16 Inside one of the tubes.
17 Solar panel covered building viewed from a sphere window.
